


Scorpia Was in a Mood. Not a Good Mood. A Bad Mood

by arielmagicesi



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, F/F, Flashbacks, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, NOT A CRACK FIC despite the title being inspired by judy moody. sorry i couldn't help myself, Past Abuse, Pining, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Soooo much fluff, Therapy, Trauma, long talks, past emotional abuse, recovering from trauma, scorpia being clueless
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:33:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arielmagicesi/pseuds/arielmagicesi
Summary: This started with me wanting to write Scorpia thinking that no one wants her and Perfuma just staring at her like "ummm ok but I do" and Scorpia being like "aww that's so nice of you! sad that no one likes me though" and Perfuma being like "I love a dumbass" and now it's a fic about Scorpia learning to accept that sometimes it's OK to have negative emotionsBUT it is a slow-burn Scorfuma fic because I'm saying SCORFUMA RIGHTS. there's cute Catradora moments tooand YES the title is a joke about Judy Moody, but it's not a crack fic, it's very serious. just pretend the title is a Hozier song lyric in all lowercase. I couldn't resist the joke
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Past Catra/Scorpia, Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra), background: glimbow spinetossa entrapdak and seamista
Comments: 29
Kudos: 135





	1. Anger

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to find out any information about the land that existed in the Fright Zone before it was the Fright Zone, but there really isn't anything so I've been making it up. Also, names for any OCs (such as Crabby) are really on-the-nose names to fit in with the rest of the canon names

Scorpia had always prided herself on her ability to be positive no matter what happened. Now that Etheria- and the entire universe- were healed from the Horde, growing greenery and flowers and beautiful magic, she was supposed to be overflowing with positive feelings. That, however, was not the case.

It was like she’d set down some giant weight, but her muscles were still clenched in the position of holding it. And now that she didn’t have to worry about keeping the weight up, she felt the pain of straining her muscles stronger than it’d been before.

Mermista had awkwardly invited her to a group therapy session for everyone who’d been possessed by Prime. Perfuma, She-Ra, and a couple of others helped to run it, using their healing powers or general expertise on mental health. “Mental health” had not really been a thing in the Horde, and Scorpia _had_ been having frequent nightmares about being trapped in Prime’s grip again, so she thought she’d try it out.

She made it through one session. She would have left before it ended, but she didn’t want to make an embarrassing scene. By the end, she felt nauseous. Clearly, therapy was not for her. Tapping into your emotions sounded nice, until you remembered that emotions included anger, sadness, bitterness, regret, grief, jealousy, and white-hot rage. Scorpia’s general modus operandi had always been to replace those emotions with positive ones. Anger? Turn that into excitement. Jealousy? Turn that into admiration.

The only time she hadn’t followed that practice was when she’d been under Prime’s influence. Then, all her emotions had been erased and replaced with pure clarity. Prime had called it peace, but as far as Scorpia could tell, it was just violence. And the clone chip had clawed its way into Scorpia’s mind and memory to find fuel for that violence, and it had found anger.

She was not going there again.

After the therapy session was over, she sank onto a bench in the hallway near the room where they’d held it, and took a deep breath.

“You are Scorpia,” she said to herself. “And today is gonna be a great day!”

Spinnerella left the room, talking to Adora, who was still in She-Ra form.

“So, sweetheart,” she said. “How are things going with you and Catra?”

Scorpia stared down at her claws.

“They’re pretty good,” Adora said, blushing, then spotted Scorpia on the bench. “Scorpia! Hey! You sorta rushed out of there.”

“Oh, ha,” Scorpia said, waving. “Don’t worry, it was a very good therapy session. You did a great job!”

“Honestly, Perfuma did most of the work,” Adora said. “She’s really great with all this feelings stuff. I mostly just bring the She Ra healing magic.” She waved her arms around awkwardly, saying “pew pew” and nearly stumbling over herself. Scorpia and Spinnerella laughed.

Catra strolled out of the room and said, “Nice dance moves, Adora.”

“They’re _healing_ moves,” Adora said.

“Mm-hm,” Catra said, and flicked a bit of lint off her shirt in Adora’s direction. Adora batted it out of the air.

“She-Ra slice! I defeated your puny attack!”

They both started laughing, and Catra playfully bumped against Adora’s shoulder.

“You two remind me of me and Netossa at your age,” Spinnerella said, smiling.

Scorpia figured no one would notice her leaving.

She made her way into the Bright Moon gardens. They were one of her favorite places to hang out. She’d have to get in her flyer and head back to the Fright- the Scorpion Kingdom- soon. There was lots to do there, and the work made her happy. A little sad, sometimes, seeing the ruins of her family’s home, but the kind of sad that was easier to turn into happiness. Because she was fixing it. She could fix that.

Herself, she could not fix, but she could fix everything else.

That made her sound unhappy, but she wasn’t. Lots of things made her happy. Helping others. Spending time with friends, both old and new. She didn’t get to spend much time with her old friend Catra or her new friend Adora, since they were busy being in love with each other, but she liked seeing them happy, and she liked spending time with Entrapta, or Perfuma, or Sea Hawk, Swift Wind, anyone who was willing to put up with her, really.

Sometimes she preferred being alone. That way she didn’t have to worry about annoying people. No, reframe that- she had the benefit of spending time with things she liked that were not people! Like flowers. There hadn’t been any flowers in the Fright Zone. There were flowers there now, though- Bow’s dads had helped her research what plants had originally grown in the Scorpion Kingdom, and she’d started a project to replant them.

The flowers in the Bright Moon garden were much brighter and more variant, though. She especially loved the rosebushes. Bright red and spiky, just like her.

“Hey there, roses,” she said, crouching down near the bushes. “Been about a month since I last visited, I know. Sorry about that. But you guys look great! That She Ra healing magic really did the trick, huh?”

“Scorpia?” a voice said, and Scorpia toppled over backwards, landing flat on her back on the lush grass.

“Oh!”

Hovering over her was Perfuma, wincing.

“Sorry if I startled you!” she said. “Need a hand getting up?”

“Nah,” Scorpia said, launching herself up to standing easily. She ran a claw over her hair and looked down at Perfuma, who looked a bit flustered.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

“Oh my gosh, no,” Perfuma said. “I just wanted to check on you. You were a bit quiet in group.”

Scorpia grimaced.

“Yeah, I… I don’t really know if therapy’s my scene,” Scorpia said. “I mean, you did a great job! Seriously! I just think…” How could she put this without hurting Perfuma’s feelings? “…I don’t really need therapy. I’m a pretty happy person.”

Perfuma’s face fell a little. Damn it, Scorpia had managed to hurt her feelings after all.

“I can still come if you want me too, though!” Scorpia said quickly. “It’d be fun just to see you being such a good therapist.”

Perfuma laughed. “Oh, Scorpia, you don’t have to worry about my feelings. I know I’m a good therapist. I’m worried because I think you might be running away from your feelings.”

“No, that’s not true,” Scorpia said automatically.

And even if it was, wasn’t that a good thing? If she had bad feelings, wasn’t running away from them the solution, not the problem? She didn’t want to tell Perfuma all that, though. Perfuma was very good at her meditation and feelings and Scorpia didn’t want to burst that bubble.

Perfuma looked sad again, so Scorpia said, “Well, maybe it’s true. Do you want me to come to group therapy again?”

“I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with,” Perfuma said. “But if you ever want to talk about your feelings, you can come to me. Remember that, OK?”

Scorpia smiled. No one had ever told her to _not_ do things that made her uncomfortable.

“Thanks, Perfuma,” she said. “You’re really nice.”

Perfuma smiled, turning a little pink- well, she was already very pink- and said, “Um- ha- I guess you probably have to go back to the Scorpion Kingdom.”

“Oh, right!” Scorpia said. “It was really nice talking to you!”

“Same!” Perfuma said.

As Scorpia headed toward the field where she’d left her flyer, Perfuma shouted, “Wait, Scorpia!”

Scorpia turned around. “Yeah?”

“I like talking to flowers, too. You should do it more often. It’s good for you!”

“Good advice!” Scorpia said.

_See?_ she thought. _It’s easy to be happy._

_But you’re not happy._

That was the voice coming from that horrible acid-green liquid spilling its way through her veins. Those first few days after the raid at the underwater club, when she and all the innocent bystanders had been locked in cells. Mermista had been turned quickly, and Double Trouble seemed to have escaped, but Scorpia kept fighting. She kept remembering that image of Perfuma and the others disappearing behind the elevator doors. She knew she had to fight for them. Every command Prime gave her, she lashed out and did something different.

_Aren’t you tired? Aren’t you tired of being good, Scorpia? Of being patient and kind and letting them walk all over you? Don’t you want to just let it go? Come home into the light. Step out of that darkness._

“Hurting people is not good!” Scorpia shouted. “I don’t care what you say! I- am- not- hurting- my- friends!”

_You won’t be hurting them. You’ll be healing them. All this time, they’ve been hurting_ you. _That’s over now._

“I don’t _care!”_ she sobbed, and she tore through a metal beam in the Fright Zone. When the hell had she arrived in the Fright Zone? She’d just been in a cell in Mermista’s old palace…

“Oh, you are strong, aren’t you?” said a voice, and it took her a second to realize it wasn’t in her head.

She gazed up, mesmerized, the green overtaking her, standing in the light of Horde Prime.

“Prime sees all. Prime knows all. The darkness wants you to push down your strength, princess. I can see the signs of you fighting your nature. You are strong. You are powerful. You no longer need to hold yourself to _their_ standards, drown yourself in their darkness. Come in. Come in to the light of Prime.”

“Join us,” chanted voices around her. “Join us, join us, join us…”

She was surrounded by green-eyed clones.

“Let it all out,” Prime whispered. “They hurt you, didn’t they? End them.”

Lightning ripped through Scorpia’s body and then out through the air.

_Prime sees all. Prime knows all. I am in the light. We are in the light._

The scar where her chip had been was all but healed. The Horde didn’t even exist anymore. She no longer heard those voices in her head. But she still had the desires they’d brought out in her. To _hurt_. To break things, to scream, to be angry. What was wrong with her?

Maybe she did need therapy. But she’d been so good at getting rid of those feelings before.

The silliest things bothered her now. She missed her moms, even if she’d never really gotten the chance to know them. She missed the Fright Zone sometimes, but it was unbearable to sleep in the old buildings. She’d been sleeping in tents, and then the new housing that the Organization to Reclaim Scorpion Kingdom (the ORSK) had built. Her work upset her sometimes, making her think of what the Horde had done to her people. She’d found a few scorpion folk scattered around the planet, and some of them hadn’t been happy to see her.

Crabby was the most outspoken about this. They were an older scorpion who’d been living in the Crimson Waste and who’d been encouraged to come over by Huntara.

“Let’s get this over with,” they said, the moment they stepped off the ship onto the ground where Scorpia was eagerly awaiting them.

“Yeah, let’s get right to work!” Scorpia said, immediately launching into a speech as they headed over to the worksite. “Tell me _everything._ I want to make sure we can get everything right with rebuilding our culture. Pincer over there has already told me tons about his favorite classic scorpion foods. I never knew there were so many ways to season food! Back when I was in the Horde-”

“Back when you were in the Horde,” Crabby snapped, “you were shitting all over your people’s legacy, yeah. So I’d imagine you weren’t enjoying any spicy grub stew.”

Scorpia stared.

“I- I didn’t- what are you talking about?”

“Your family handed our people right over to those monsters,” Crabby said. “Those of us who didn’t roll over and let them take our land, we were driven out by force. They killed my parents. I grew up as an orphan in the Waste. I had to cling to the parts of my culture that I remembered. I had to fight to survive.”

“I am so, so sorry,” Scorpia said. “I never wanted any of that.”

“Didn’t you?” Crabby said. “You knew what the Horde was doing. I know you knew, because _I saw you._ I saw you come into the Crimson Waste just over a _year_ ago, with that little cat girl. You could have left that army, started over, but instead you took soldiers and weapons and you went back and you ripped a hole in reality. You let the Horde do that.”

Scorpia’s eyes were welling with tears.

“You’re right,” she said. “I did know. But I was trying to be positive. Looking on the bright side of things-”

“What the hell are you talking about? There is no bright side to the Horde. What is wrong with you? Aren’t you angry at the army that destroyed your land and-”

“Of course I’m angry!” Scorpia shouted.

The worksite went quiet. The other people gathered around were staring- they’d never heard Scorpia raise her voice in anything but glee and excitement.

“Whoops,” she said quickly, waving her claws around. “Lost my temper a little there- sorry, folks- didn’t mean-”

“What did they do to you?” Crabby said, their voice quieter now.

“I need to be alone,” Scorpia said. “But uh- I am sorry. I’m not just saying that. Look, this is your land. You should talk to some of the other scorpions here. I think you’d like them.”

And then she ran off.

She stopped running when she reached a part of the Fright Zone that hadn’t been renovated yet. It was still a bit overgrown with some of the greenery that had erupted from She Ra’s healing magic, but a lot of it was just grey metal. She’d never noticed how violent that architectural style was before- soulless, cold, meant not just for practicality but for the purpose of grinding down a person’s will and individuality.

She let out a long, terrible, frustrated scream.

She let out an unrecognizable sob.

She let lightning tear through her body, like she’d done while standing in front of Horde Prime. Only this time she wasn’t his weapon. This time she was her own weapon, and she was lashing out at him.

_Hurting people is not good_ , she thought. _Letting them hurt others might be worse._

When she returned to the campsite that evening, Crabby was sitting and laughing with the other scorpions around the bonfire. She tried to avoid them and rush to her tent, but they broke off from the group and ran over to her.

“Hey, listen,” they said. “The others have been telling me all day what you’ve been doing here. All the work with the ORSK- I want to help with it. This is good work. And they told me about how you left the Horde during the war and fought against them.”

“I’m still sorry for the bad things I let happen,” Scorpia said, finding it hard to look them in the eye.

Crabby nodded. “You should be. I don’t know if I’ll be able to forgive you for that so soon. But I can still work with you. I can know someone did bad things, and I can understand that they’re working to make up for it, and well- growing up in the Crimson Waste, you learn how to work with people that you have issues with. I think I can definitely work with you.”

Scorpia’s eyes welled up with tears again.

“Ohhh! Oh, thank you!” she shouted, this time out of glee. “Can I give you a hug? I’m a hugger.”

“No, thanks,” Crabby said.

“No problem,” Scorpia said. “I am just thrilled you’re gonna help rebuild our kingdom! This is gonna be great, I know it.”

“Yeah, let’s hope,” Crabby replied, and headed back to the bonfire.

**Etheria-Mail**

**Message from: Princess Scorpia**

**To: Princess Perfuma**

Hi Perfuma!!!!!

I hope you’re doing well. I’m doing great! Huntara sent over some scorpion folks from the Crimson Waste, and they’re helping with the rebuilding movement. Every day I’m learning something new about my culture. You should visit! You would love all the plants. I’m thinking of starting a garden.

You’re probably wondering why I’m messaging you. Well, it’s because I thought about what you said. I think you were right. I’ve been running away from my feelings. Specifically the bad ones. Like anger. I think that actually isn’t such a good thing. The thing is, I don’t know if I like group therapy. Don’t get me wrong- I love my friends! And you did a really good job running the group! But it's hard to talk about these things in front of everyone. You know? If you’re still up for talking about feelings- you don’t have to be my therapist, but just as a friend- if you are OK with that- cause you are really good at feelings stuff? Only if you want!

Thanks a million!

~~L~~ Sincerely,

Your friend,

Scorpia

**Etheria-Mail**

**Message from: Princess Perfuma**

**To: Princess Scorpia**

Hi, Scorpia!!!

I love getting messages from you! Definitely feel free to message me anything you want…

I would love to talk about feelings with you anytime! I am so proud of you for acknowledging your emotions. A lot of people aren’t totally comfortable with group therapy. Catra even told me that she felt weird sitting with the whole group, and I know lots of people who find it better to talk one-on-one. Plus, we’re already friends, so it’s probably weird to have friends as your official therapist. I would LOVE to talk just as friends though! Please come over to Plumeria any time you’re free.

Or I can visit the Scorpion Kingdom and see all these plants you told me about! Either way.

Love,

Your friend,

Perfuma


	2. Jealousy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to my ex girlfriend for inspiring some of Catra's more shitty behavior in this chapter! and disclaimer that I LOVE CATRA and she's a good baby  
> also shoutout to Perfuma for being gay

“Am I being too subtle?” Perfuma said. The carnations didn’t say anything in response, but she continued, “I don’t know, I think we have a connection. It’s not just because she’s gorgeous. Although she is. _So gorgeous._ ”

The blueberry plant shook, as if to say, _We get it, Perfuma, you already told us this._

“I _know._ I just. You know how I am with women.”

The carnations shrugged to the side. Yeah, they knew.

“She’s just beautiful and kind and _strong_ and the sweetest and-”

“Talking about me?”

Perfuma jumped, vines instinctively raising around her in protection. Catra was standing at the door of the greenhouse, her arms crossed.

“Hello, Catra,” Perfuma said. “I’m not sure if you know what knocking is?”

“Ha ha,” Catra said. “I go where I please. Listen, Adora and I are going to this outdoor concert picnic thing in the Whispering Woods.”

“The Midsummer Music Festival? It’s an Etherian tradition. We haven’t had it in a while, because of…” She coughed delicately. “But um, yay, I’m so excited you and Adora will get to see it!”

“Yeah, well, she wanted me to go around inviting all her friends so that I can get to know you better or whatever. Sparkles and what’s-his-face are already coming.”

“Catra, I know you know their names.”

“Yeah, but they hate it when I call them Sparkles and What’s His Face.” Catra grinned.

Perfuma sighed. She’d gotten used to Catra, but sometimes she could be difficult.

“Sure,” she said. “So you’re saying you want to invite me?”

“I guess,” Catra said. “Me and Adora are inviting you to bring a picnic blanket and all sorts of berries and crap and watch music with us.”

An idea hit Perfuma.

“Can I bring Scorpia?” she asked.

A shadow passed over Catra’s eyes. “Whatever,” she muttered. “As long as you don’t think I’m going to be mean to her.”

“Oh,” Perfuma said, her smile dropping. “You’re still mad about me calling you out.”

Catra glared at the ground.

“I thought you two had talked,” Perfuma said. “That she forgave you.”

Catra continued to glare at the ground.

“Did you two talk? Did you apologize?”

Catra shifted her glare to the wall.

“Catra?”

“It’s not that simple!” Catra exploded. “The last time I saw her before the whole Prime thing, she told me I was a bad friend and then she just _left_. And then the next time I saw her was after everything had ended, and I was so sure she was just going to, like, deck me in the face. That’s what I would have done. That’s what I wanted to do to Hordak! That’s what I wanted to do to fucking Shadow Weaver! If someone had treated _me_ like I treated S-Scorpia, I would have beat them up. But she saw me and she was just so happy to see that I was alive. She just wrapped me in a hug like nothing ever happened. Maybe she thought nothing ever happened. Maybe she’s just that dumb, I don’t know! I didn’t want to ruin it. So I’ve been nice to her every time I see her, but no, I guess I didn’t _technically_ apologize. How the hell am I supposed to apologize to someone who’s not even mad at me?”

She sat herself down on the nearest chair, which was actually just a clump of thistles that stung her, and she leapt up and yelped.

“What is _with_ this place?” she exclaimed, and glared at Perfuma.

Perfuma let out a long breath. She wished Catra would express herself more- it made it a million times easier to talk to her.

“Catra, not all people express themselves the same way,” she said. “Sometimes, well, some people are more understanding than others. Like Scorpia. She knows what you’ve been through, she knows it wasn’t all your fault.”

“But it _was_ my fault,” Catra muttered.

“It’s more complicated than that. You did bad things, and part of that was your choice. But part of that was the environment you were in.” Perfuma picked up a small potted plant. “If I put poison in this pot, this little sapling couldn’t grow. You were surrounded by poison, Catra. And you still managed to grow. The fact that you feel bad, that you acknowledge your mistakes, is proof of that.”

Catra swiped quickly at her eyes, and Perfuma pretended not to notice her crying.

“Still feels like shit,” she said.

“Ha, yeah. Trust me, I know. But I hope you’ll choose to be brave and keep doing this work. Like how you’re opening up to Adora.”

“But opening up to Adora is fun,” Catra said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“I meant emotionally opening up, Catra. You should do that with Scorpia, too. I think it would mean a lot.”

“You’re right,” Catra said.

“Can I get that on tape?” Perfuma said.

“No, and I’ll deny anyone you tell that I said the words ‘you’re right’,” Catra said. “Um, seriously, though. I’m gonna talk to Scorpia. And yeah, you can bring her to the concert thing.” Catra rubbed a hand over her head. “Are you two, like… together or something?”

Perfuma sighed. “We’re friends.”

A sly smile crept onto Catra’s face. “I assume that was her you were telling your flowers about just now, then.”

Perfuma’s entire face turned warm. She covered her eyes with her hands and said, “I have plant magic, I talk to my flowers about everything.”

“Oh my God, you are so into her!” Catra said gleefully. “Don’t let Bow find out. He’ll start squeaking about how _adorable_ you are.”

“It’s not funny, I’m really gay,” Perfuma said, still covering her eyes.

“That much is obvious,” Catra said. “Hey, I hope you end up dating her, though. She deserves a girlfriend like you.”

Perfuma uncovered her eyes.

“That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” she said.

“Whatever,” Catra said. “See you in a couple days at the concert.”

Scorpia was wearing a dark violet skin-tight outfit that made Perfuma lose her breath.

“Do you like it?” she asked carefully.

“Yes,” Perfuma breathed. Then she realized Scorpia was referring to the garland of citrus blossoms she’d strung around her neck. “Oh- yes, it’s gorgeous. I’m gonna have to come over to your kingdom to see the citrus trees!”

“How’d you know they were citrus flowers?” Scorpia asked.

“I know plants,” Perfuma said. “It’s kind of my thing.”

“Oh yeah, duh, of course.”

“Come on, let’s go meet up with the others,” Perfuma said.

“Oh,” Scorpia said. “I- Catra actually called me up the other night. I’m worried she might feel bad seeing me. She wanted to apologize for how she treated me in the Horde.”

“And?” Perfuma said.

“I told her I totally understand, of course! That she was going through a really hard time, and that it made sense. But…” Scorpia rubbed her claws together. “I kind of had a realization recently that, uh, sometimes people do bad things, and even though it wasn’t their fault, and even though you still care about them and want to work with them, you might still be mad at them and not ready to forgive them so soon. I forgive Catra, and I told her that, but I told her the other stuff too. So I might have hurt her feelings, I don’t know.”

“Did she seem like her feelings were hurt?” Perfuma asked.

“Well, she said that it was OK, and she even said thank you for being honest, which I don’t know how well you know Catra, but that is pretty unusual for her, ha ha! I just…”

Scorpia stared off to the side.

“Just what?” Perfuma prompted, softly.

“I’m just not used to saying negative stuff to people I care about.”

“Scorpia,” Perfuma said. “I…”

She sighed.

“Actually, I totally get it. I used to think that if you care about something, you can only ever be positive about it. But that way of thinking almost made my kingdom fall apart. Sometimes, acknowledging the bad things can help you nurture the good ones. Plus, Catra knows what a caring person you are. I bet she’s totally fine. Well, as fine as _Catra_ ever is.”

Scorpia laughed. “I know, she can be pretty cranky sometimes. But she’s got a good heart.”

“Yeah, she does,” Perfuma said. “Come on, let’s meet up with her and all the others.”

They walked into the woods, which were lit up with thousands of fireflies, lanterns, and magical sparks. The trees were thick with leaves, but the clearing where the musicians were performing was open to the last bits of the scarlet sunset and the beginnings of starlight. The air was scented like heady jasmine and rosemary and lavender, and Scorpia’s skeletal armor glinted in all the little lights.

“Wow, this place is so beautiful!” she said, staring at everything.

“Yeah, so beautiful,” Perfuma breathed, staring at Scorpia.

“I am so glad that I got to see all this,” Scorpia said. “The Fright Zone, well, it was nothing like this, to say the least. I’m happy that… well. That Etheria is healed.”

Perfuma nodded.

“Hey, Perfuma!” Bow shouted from a couple yards away, jumping up and down. “Scorpia! Guys, they’re here! We’re over here, Perfuma and Scorpia! This is our blanket!”

“They hear you, Bow! You don’t need to _shout!_ ” Glimmer shouted.

“Hi, Bow!” Scorpia shouted, waving a claw in the air. “We brought food!”

“I love food!” Adora piped up.

There was some free space next to the section of blankets where Adora and her friends had set up, so Perfuma set down her basket and pulled out the blanket she’d brought. She aired it out and set it on the ground.

The clearing was quickly filling up with people- everyone was thrilled about the return of the Midsummer Music Festival. Perfuma hadn’t been to one since she was a kid and the Whispering Woods had become too dangerous for the festival to be a good idea anymore. Now there was plenty of excited chatter and the noise of musicians practicing and setting up.

Adora and Catra had brought a ratty gray blanket that they were sprawled on. Adora kept stretching her arm over to the giant snack platter that Entrapta had brought to grab tiny cupcakes and canapes. Entrapta seemed too busy talking to Wrong Hordak to notice.

“Is Hordak coming?” Perfuma asked.

“He felt that his presence would likely not be appreciated,” Entrapta said, “at a festival that had been previously cancelled due to his invasion. Oh, and he’s technically on house arrest because the Princess Alliance is still trying to figure out what to do with him. So that’s the main reason why he can’t come. I said I would come and take copious notes. Wrong Hordak, did you note how Adora has taken sixteen of my cupcakes so far?”

“Sorry!” Adora said, snapping her hand back. Catra cackled.

“It is an honor to feed a fellow member of our great resistance,” Wrong Hordak said.

“Note: we seem to have arrived quite early,” Entrapta continued into her recording device. “I suspect the musical performers will take a long time to prepare, despite the posted start time of this event being fifteen minutes ago. I think this is an expected part of the event, as this is an excellent time for socializing. I notice that Mermista and Sea Hawk are currently engaged in what appears to be their romantic ritual of pretending to dislike each other.”

“Entrapta, stop narrating us!” Mermista shouted.

Perfuma’s chest was warm. She leaned back on her arms and watched the woods fill up. As the night approached, the lights only grew brighter, and all her friends were chattering happily.

She glanced next to her on the blanket to see that Scorpia was missing, and nearly panicked before she heard Scorpia’s voice in the near distance, talking very loudly to Swift Wind.

“You should do a tour around the kingdoms!” she was saying. “That’s how I found all my fellow scorpions. I bet there’s so many horses who feel the same way you do- you just gotta find them!”

“ _That_ is a genius idea,” Swift Wind said. “I’ve already talked to every horse in the Bright Moon former-stables- it’s time to bring the liberation movement to all of Etheria!”

“That’s the spirit!”

They attempted a weird claw-to-hoof high five.

“You wanna come watch the concert with us?” Scorpia asked.

“I’m actually hanging out with Micah, Frosta, Spinnerella, and Netossa,” Swift Wind said. “They’re all backstage- we all helped Frosta prepare a musical tribute for the Kingdom of Snows.”

“Aw, that’s awesome!” Scorpia said. “Wow, I didn’t know princesses could perform in this. I might’ve auditioned.”

She glanced back at Perfuma and grinned. Perfuma’s heart lit up.

“Maybe next year!” Swift Wind said. “Actually, I should probably head backstage about now. I’ll see you later, Scorps!”

“See ya, Swifty!”

Swift Wind flew out, and Scorpia returned and sat down next to Perfuma.

“Man, I wish I’d known more about this music festival,” she said. “I’ve been so busy rebuilding my kingdom that I forgot about how much I love music.”

“I hear you singing all the time,” Perfuma said. “I don’t think you’ve forgotten how much you love music.”

“That’s true,” Scorpia said. “Maybe I’ll hold a small music festival in the Scorpion Kingdom. That’ll be good for us, I think.”

“That’s a great idea! Oh, I love that.”

Entrapta’s hair snuck over and tapped Scorpia on the back.

“Scorpia, do you consent to me recording notes on you?” she asked.

“Sure,” Scorpia said.

“Music festival notes: Scorpia is thinking of holding her own music festival. Add to potential calendar of events.”

“Well, now I have to do it,” Scorpia said.

They started talking about what musicians they’d hire, and Perfuma listened intently. Suddenly Entrapta broke in with, “Hold on, Perfuma, what’s in that basket? Small foodstuffs?”

“Actually, yes!” Perfuma said. “Mini raspberry tarts!”

Entrapta squealed with excitement and lifted open the basket with her hair. Inside were bite-size pastries, each with one or two perfect fresh raspberries nestled inside on a bed of cream.

“Aaaahhh!” she said. “They are so _small!_ Adora, do you want one of these?”

“Yes please,” Adora said, and reached for one.

“These look amazing,” Scorpia said. “Can I have one?”

“Of course, silly,” Perfuma said, and handed her one. It was a bit too small for Scorpia’s claws to grasp and it fell on the blanket.

“Oh, dear,” Scorpia said, and instinctively, Perfuma lifted it to Scorpia’s mouth, wanting to help. Scorpia’s eyes widened and she quickly took the raspberry tart between her lips. Perfuma was pretty sure her entire face was red now.

“Thanks,” Scorpia said.

“I have some slightly bigger pastries,” Perfuma said. “Might be easier on your claws.”

“Good, uh, good idea,” Scorpia said.

“Relationship notes!” Entrapta exclaimed, and Perfuma momentarily panicked that she was about to comment on Perfuma’s apparent need to get as close to Scorpia’s mouth as possible, but then she said, “Catra, Adora, do you consent to me taking notes about your romantic relationship?”

“I’m not sure Catra wants…” Adora began, as Catra said, “Yeah, this should be amazing.” Adora rolled her eyes.

“I noticed that you hold hands regularly, in an interlocking finger pattern. Is this a normal part of romantic relationships, or have you created this ritual for this particular relationship?”

“Wouldn’t know,” Catra said offhand. “Not like either of us have ever been with anyone else before.”

Scorpia’s claw suddenly gripped the blanket, in a way no one but Perfuma would have noticed.

“Interesting,” Entrapta said. “I suppose that would be your answer regarding why you often make exceedingly prolonged eye contact with each other, engage in teasing and play-fighting as a form of affection, and take a great deal of naps together, even during hours when people don’t generally sleep.”

“OK, I take it back, you can’t take notes on us,” Catra said.

“It’s no problem, you didn’t give me any new information,” Entrapta said, and returned to her inspection of the mini raspberry tarts.

“Hey, Perfuma,” Scorpia said quietly. “I actually just realized I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.”

“Oh,” Perfuma said. “I think there’s bathrooms set up near the parking lot area.”

“Thanks. See you in a bit.”

She got up and headed out. Perfuma’s gaze followed her. Her shoulders were tensed, and she walked in the same way she sometimes had in battle- not when she was taking a fluid fighting stance, but when she was on her guard.

“Perfuma, get your chefs in contact with my chefs, please,” Entrapta said.

“I actually made these myself,” Perfuma said. “I like baking sometimes.”

“Really?” Entrapta said. “Interesting. Friendship notes: Perfuma likes baking sometimes.”

Perfuma smiled, but her eyes were still drifting towards the section of trees Scorpia had disappeared into.

“Guys, I think I’m gonna, uh, go to the bathroom real quick,” she said, and rushed over to the bathroom.

“OK, but me and Adora are gonna finish your pastries!” Entrapta shouted after her.

Perfuma emerged in the parking lot, where a small building was set up. There was already a line snaking out of it, but Scorpia wasn’t in the line. Perfuma glanced around, starting to get worried, when she saw a telltale bruise on one of the trees. Not something that anyone else would have noticed, but Perfuma knew trees.

She walked over and placed her hand to the bruise. That was Scorpia, accidentally bumping her claw into a tree while storming into the forest. Perfuma closed her eyes and let the tree’s bark heal.

“She’s angry,” she said. “I don’t know why, but I hope I can help her.”

She walked between the trees, stepping carefully so as to not bother their roots, and walked until she heard someone sniffle. Her heart seized.

“Scorpia?” she said quietly.

Scorpia’s head popped up from around the side of a giant tree trunk. Her eyes were red. She was sitting on the ground, leaned against the tree.

“Perfuma? What are you doing here? How did you even find me?”

“I thought you might not actually be going to the bathroom,” Perfuma said. “What’s going on, Scorpia? You can talk to me.”

“It’s dumb,” Scorpia said. “You can go back to the festival if you want.”

“I want to talk to you,” Perfuma said.

She walked around the tree trunk and sat herself in the space next to Scorpia. The grass curled itself to make a comfortable seat for the two of them.

“Wow,” Scorpia said. “You are really good with plants.”

She sniffled, and laid her head against her knees, which were curled to her chest.

“You don’t have to talk,” Perfuma said. “But you can tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to,” she said. “It might be betraying someone’s trust.”

“Whose trust?”

Scorpia looked up, and her face was full of fear and shame. “Catra’s.”

“How?”

“I think she’d be ashamed.”

“Scorpia, you know I’m not a judgmental type of person. Whatever this thing is, it’s clearly weighing on you. How about, you tell me, and I promise it won’t change how I treat you or Catra at all.”

Scorpia sniffed and let out a breath.

“Um, okay,” she said. “Well, like I said, it’s kinda dumb-”

“Nothing you feel is dumb,” Perfuma said.

“Okay, I guess. But uh, anyway, it’s just that… Catra said that both she and Adora hadn’t ever been with anyone before. And I don’t know about Adora, but…” She stared off into the woods, away from Perfuma.

“But what?” Perfuma asked.

“But, well, Catra and I… we weren’t just friends. We kissed. In the Crimson Waste. Actually, we kissed a couple more times after that. And we tried… We tried to do more, but then my stupid claws got in the way, and she told me to just forget it and that she knew I’d be bad at sex just like I was bad at everything else.”

Perfuma swallowed her rage, and remembered the promise she’d made seconds earlier to not treat Catra any differently.

“And I guess that doesn’t, like, count as being _together_ , and it sounds really bad, but I thought we had something. I liked her so much back then. I mean, I still like her now, but now it’s like a friend. Back then, I really wanted to be with her, you know? And we got along. We had a lot of problems, but Catra wasn’t a bad person. She just… did a lot of bad things. And she could be a good- whatever we were, not girlfriend, but whatever we were. Sometimes she let me cuddle her when we were on stakeouts, and she would tell me I looked pretty and stuff, and…” Scorpia let out a small sob. “I asked her if I could call her my girlfriend, and she told me I could call her whatever I wanted in my own head, but that I better not call her that to anyone else, because she didn’t want people thinking that about me and her. Like she was _ashamed of me!_ ”

The last words came out in a big crying rush, and Scorpia buried her head in her knees again. Perfuma clutched at the grass below her, which had grown to curl around her fists and strengthen them.

She took a deep breath in, deep breath out, and released the fists. Then she tentatively placed her arm around Scorpia’s shoulders.

“Scorpia…” she started.

“Who wouldn’t be ashamed of me?” Scorpia said quietly, still crying. “Of being with me like that? It makes sense. No one has ever wanted me like that.”

“What?” Perfuma said, her anger suddenly being replaced with confusion.

“Come on, Perfuma. I’m not exactly a casanova. Everyone else has someone, and I’m just this embarrassing secret Catra had before she got her happily ever after. And I _am_ happy for her, and I get why she said the stuff she did to me- you know, she was hurting. She probably was thinking about Adora the whole time, which makes sense cause Adora is great. But- I know I’m supposed to be positive, but- sometimes it hurts to be the only one that no one wants.”

Perfuma’s mouth opened and closed. This was definitely not the time to confess her feelings.

“How do you know that no one wants you?” she asked.

“Um, because I’m twenty-three years old and the only experience I have is Catra pretending I’m Adora?”

“Well, you did grow up in the Horde,” Perfuma said.

Scorpia raised an eyebrow.

“Wasn’t dating, like, banned in the Horde?” Perfuma asked.

“Oh!” Scorpia said. “Yeah, I guess it was. No one really followed those rules, though. The only people who cared about the rules were Hordak and Shadow Weaver. Hordak was always in his lab yelling at things, and Shadow Weaver was too busy with Adora to care if anyone else broke the rules. Everyone else in the Horde had sex and dated all the time. Well, except Kyle, but then it turned out he and Rogelio are together now, so. There goes the Forever Alone Club, president Scorpia, vice president Kyle.” She laughed a little.

“OK, but just because no one was ever with you doesn’t mean no one wanted you,” Perfuma said. “Maybe someone really liked you but they were too shy to say it.”

“I doubt it,” Scorpia said.

“Well, maybe someone liked you and thought you were amazing and wanted to date you, and she kept dropping hints but you just never picked up on them.”

“I don’t know about that,” Scorpia said. “I’m pretty good at picking up hints.”

Perfuma looked directly at the daisy growing nearby, who looked back as if to say, _This is painful to watch._

“Scorpia,” she said. “First of all, someone definitely wants you, probably lots of people. You’re beautiful and sweet and kind and amazing. Second of all, even if no one ever wanted to date you, you would still be the magnificent princess Scorpia. You do so many amazing things every day- you sing and you help your friends and you rebuild an entire kingdom from scratch and you do magic. And what Catra did to you was not OK. But she knows that, and I bet that’s actually why she said Adora was the first person she’s ever been with- because she knows that the way she treated you is not how lovers treat each other. And somebody who’s been through everything you’ve been through, and who does all the things you do, it’s OK if you take a little longer to get around to dating. It’s OK if you even choose to never date anyone, or never have sex.”

Scorpia wiped away her tears with her forearm, and Perfuma pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and gently helped her wipe the tears from her cheeks.

“Thank you for saying that, Perfuma,” she said softly. “Actually, I would love to date women and have sex any day now, but no one seems interested.”

Perfuma cocked her head, about to just say fuck it and confess her feelings, but then Scorpia said, “Then again, I’d probably be so desperate to date any woman that I’d end up with a woman who treated me badly again. I don’t want to be with just anyone. It’s just that, well, girls are great, you know? I’d love to be with one. But you’re right. It’s OK for me to focus on all the other stuff in my life for now.”

“Yeah,” Perfuma said. She was half disappointed that Scorpia wasn’t interested in making out with her right at this moment, but she was mostly really happy that Scorpia had opened up to her and unburdened herself.

In the distance, they heard a great roar of sound.

“Oh, that’s probably the first act starting,” Scorpia said. “I guess we should be getting back, huh?”

“Probably,” Perfuma said, although she’d have been happy to miss the whole festival and spend the night sitting here in the crook of a tree with Scorpia.

Scorpia lifted off the ground with just her leg muscles- god, it was hot how she did that, she was so strong- and then offered a claw to Perfuma and hoisted her up to standing.

“Um, please don’t be mean to Catra cause of the stuff I said,” she said, while Perfuma was still trying to catch her breath.

“I promised I wouldn’t, didn’t I?” Perfuma said. “Listen, I am kind of mad at her, but I know how hard she’s working to be a better person. I know what she’s been through. And I promise I won’t bring this up to her unless you want me to.”

“Thanks, Perfuma,” Scorpia said.

She tentatively brushed her claw over Perfuma’s shoulder, then brought her into a hug. Perfuma hugged her back, growing warm and smiling.

“Come on,” Perfuma said. “I don’t want you to miss out on the music.”


	3. Insecurity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok I know the tags say slow burn but it may be more of a medium burn... don't worry it'll still take them at least like 3 more chapters to actually get together lol. anyway yeah I'm churning out this fic at top speed bc I decided to obsess about Scorpia instead of uhhhhh (looks at smudged writing on hand) responsibilities??

**MESSAGES**

**_Catra (Best Friend!!!):_ ** _hey scorpia come over to brightmoon cause adora and glimmer are holding a dumb_

**_Catra (Best Friend!!!):_ ** _a DUMB_

**_Catra (Best Friend!!!):_ ** _This is Adora, I took Catra’s phone away until she can be nice_

**_Catra (Best Friend!!!):_ ** _mmmmmmretgrhijooo_

**_Catra (Best Friend!!!):_ ** _this is catra again i sat on adora until she gave my phone back. we’re having a dumb tea party and u like tea. come to it or else_

“What are you gathering?” Shelly asked. Shelly was one of the younger scorpions working in the ORSK, at sixteen years old, but she was enthusiastic about everything. She was heading up one of the excavation projects to find pre-Horde Scorpion buildings.

Scorpia looked up from her collection of potted plants, which she’d arranged on the patio of the still-under-construction Scorpion Palace.

“Stuff for tea,” she said. “I like to grate fresh ginger-root into the tea, and I started growing mint and lemon verbena. They’re pretty easy to grow. Wanna try harvesting some?”

Scorpia held up the bowl full of herbs she’d picked, then demonstrated how to carefully clip them with the sharp end of her claws. Shelly stuck her claws in and accidentally decimated a branch of lovage off to the side.

“I’m sorry!” she said.

“Oh, gosh, it’s totally fine. I’ve done that a ton. Here, try it again.”

Together, they carefully picked a whole bowl-ful of herbs and dug up some ginger. Scorpia showed Shelly to Horror Hall. She didn’t like visiting often, since it brought up weird feelings that she didn’t think she was ready to face just yet.

“I love this place,” Shelly said. “My mom told me all the history that she learned from her mom, and this place just reminds me of it. Look, it’s the mural of the great kings and queens- the King Glint, his husband Gleam, and their daughter, Scorpia. I guess you must have been named after her.”

Scorpia’s eyes went wide.

“I never knew their names,” she said.

“Well, you should talk to my mom. She wrote down a lot of what my grandma told her. So, where’s this stuff you said you kept here?”

“Oh, yeah,” Scorpia said. “My teakettle. My mom gave it to me when I was little. Before I got moved to Horde housing when I was five. I guess I was pretty lucky to have that time with my moms first.”

“Why’s the kettle still in here?” Shelly asked.

Scorpia sighed.

“It was, uh. It was easier to leave behind the stuff from my family. Just stow it in here. But I want to take it out now. Oh, here it is!”

She found the latch behind the old throne and clicked it open, pulling out the reddish-brown metal teapot, with the handle shaped like a pincer.

“It’s so pretty,” Shelly said, and Scorpia raised an eyebrow in confusion. It was rusted and hard, not _pretty_. It looked like… it looked like her, with her claws and her exoskeleton.

And it looked like Shelly, with _her_ claws and exoskeleton. A bright, smiling kid who was happy to see an artifact from her people that looked like her.

That could be pretty, too.

“Come on,” Scorpia said. “Let’s go see if this thing still works, and then I’m headed to Bright Moon for a tea party.”

They headed out. Scorpia turned around to look at the empty hall again. Across the room, the eyes of her namesake met hers.

“…if she doesn’t arrive in five minutes I’m turning this table over- _ow Adora!_ What was that- aaaaahh hi Scorpia!”

“Hey, Catra!” Scorpia said. She set down her giant bag on the floor and ran over to sweep Catra and Adora into a giant hug.

“Aaahhh, I’ve missed you guys. By the way, I hope you don’t mind, I brought my new friend Shelly. She’s with the ORSK.”

“The what?” Catra asked.

“Organization to Reclaim Scorpion Kingdom. Didn’t I tell you about them?”

“Oh, yeah. You did. I forgot. Sorry about that.”

Scorpia released the hug. “Wow, Catra, thank you for apologizing! It’s OK- I forget stuff all the time. Anyway, Shelly’s awesome.”

“Hi,” Shelly said, a bit shyly. She’d been really excited to meet members of the Princess Alliance, but she seemed a bit nervous now.

“Don’t be nervous!” Scorpia said. “These are two of my best friends. Shelly, meet Adora and Catra.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Adora said. “Do you want a tour of the palace? Not the whole thing, obviously, just enough of it to make time for uh… for Catra to uh…” She gave Catra a pointed look, and Catra brought her hand to her forehead. “Scorpia, you brought stuff! Why don’t you and Catra set it up, and I’ll show Shelly the Bright Moon library.”

“A library?” Shelly said, perking up. “Are there historical archives?”

“Uh, yeah, I think. Bow would probably know more about that.”

“ _Bow?_ George and Lance’s kid? I love their beginner’s guide to archaeology!”

“Yeah, well, come on, I’ll show you stuff that smart people like,” Adora said, then mouthed something at Catra and guided Shelly out of the room.

Catra groaned and pounced onto a nearby poufy chair.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “Adora wants me to talk to you.”

“About what?” Scorpia asked. She picked up her bag from near the door and brought it to the table. “You guys set up a great table here.”

“Mermista set it up, actually,” Catra said.

“Well, she did a great job! Is it OK if I unload all my tea stuff? I don’t want to mess with the décor.”

“Uh, I don’t give a fuck about décor. Do whatever you want.”

Then Catra sighed. “I mean, yeah, set up your stuff. It’ll be nice.”

“Aww, thanks, wildcat,” Scorpia said, and gave Catra a gentle pat on the head before starting to unload her bag- herbs, her family teakettle, a newer shiny pot she’d bought recently, rock candy to use as sweeteners, citrus fruit, and a million other things. She’d gotten a little over excited.

“Anyway,” she said. “You said Adora wanted to talk to me?”

“No, she wants me to talk to you,” Catra said. She shifted awkwardly in her seat, picking up a cushion and squeezing it to her chest.

“Why? Is something going on?”

Catra let out a long groan.

“No, there isn’t, but like, there kind of is? I know I already apologized about how I…”

Her voice caught, and her claws dug into the cushion.

“Hey, come on,” Scorpia said, setting down the mug she was holding and going over to sit next to Catra. “I told you, it’s OK. I know how hard you’re working on getting better.”

“It’s just…” Catra shut her eyes tight. “I hurt _so many_ people. I hurt Adora really bad. I have no idea why she even wants to spend time with me, let alone… _be_ with me.”

Scorpia had worried that she might feel some leftover jealousy or resentment hearing about Catra and Adora’s relationship, but she didn’t feel that at all. All she felt was the need to hug Catra. She forced herself to refrain only because Catra looked like she didn’t want to be touched at all right now.

She hadn’t known that Catra could get insecure, too. Angry, sad, scared, sure. But insecure? She was _Catra._ She was so cool!

“Catra, Adora loves you. I mean- I don’t know if she said those words- but it’s really clear. That’s why she wants to be with you. And you’re a good person. You have a good heart.”

Catra let out a shaky breath and opened her eyes to look at Scorpia.

“Ugh,” she said. “I was an asshole to you for years and I’m supposed to be apologizing to you and you’re still so nice to me.”

“You’re my friend. Friends are nice to each other.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t very nice to you.”

Scorpia frowned and looked down at her claws.

“No, you weren’t,” she said. “But now you’re learning how to be a good friend. No one ever taught you how before.”

“Yeah,” Catra said. “Adora’s teaching me how to be a good friend, I guess. I should thank her for that more often instead of driving her crazy every day.”

“I think seeing you be happy and nice is enough reward for her,” Scorpia said.

Catra nodded. “She’s really nice, too.”

Scorpia _did_ feel a bit of resentment in the pit of her stomach, then- but only a little. Part of her wished that Catra had shown this kind of appreciation to Scorpia back in the day, but part of her was just happy she’d gotten around to it now.

As if Catra had read her mind, she said, “I never really thanked _you._ For always being there for me, for being such a good friend. I know all that stuff in the Horde is in the past, but- I can’t just pretend like it didn’t happen. I can’t pretend like _we_ didn’t happen.”

She gestured back and forth between the two of them. Scorpia swallowed.

“That’s actually, uh…” Catra scratched her head. “That’s why Adora wanted me to talk to you. Cause she noticed at the music festival that you sort of ran off.”

“Oh,” Scorpia said. “I didn’t want anyone to be bothered by me leaving-”

“Scorpia, it’s fine. It makes sense. I didn’t even realize why you left, but I think it might be because I said Adora was the only person I’d ever been with like that, and that’s kind of not true.”

Scorpia grimaced. “Did- did Perfuma talk to you? Cause I told her not to-”

“What? No. Why, what’s going on with you and Perfuma?”

“Nothing, I just…” Scorpia sighed. “I guess I told Perfuma about what happened with us in the Crimson Waste, and stuff. I’m really sorry- I know you told me not to tell anyone-”

Catra, out of nowhere, burst into tears.

“What? Oh God. Oh no. Oh, Catra, I am so sorry- do you need a hug? No, probably not. Do you want me to go?”

“No!” Catra sobbed. “I’m just so... I don’t know, I’m so ashamed.”

“Oh,” Scorpia said. “I promise I won’t tell anyone else about us, then-”

“ _No!”_ Catra said again. “I’m not ashamed about _us_ , I’m ashamed of myself! You were so, so good to me, and I made you feel like you were just… I don’t know, it was like I was trying to make you feel as bad about yourself as I felt about me! But it just made me feel worse! God, Scorpia, you didn’t deserve to be treated like shit. I wanted to pretend like we never kissed because I wanted to pretend like at _least_ , I wasn’t a shitty girlfriend on top of being a shitty friend. But I never, ever want you to feel like I’m _ashamed_ of you. You were the only nice thing about the Horde after Adora left.”

Scorpia was quiet.

“Oh,” she said, finally. “I didn’t know that. I just thought you… I just thought you didn’t want people to know you were with someone like me.”

Catra looked up at Scorpia.

“I figured you wouldn’t want people to know you were with someone like _me,_ ” she said.

“That’s not true,” Scorpia said.

“Well, it’s not true on my part, either.”

“Oh,” Scorpia said again. “Well then… why didn’t you tell anyone about me?”

“I told you, because I’m ashamed that I treated you like that. And I did tell Adora. That’s why she asked me to talk to you.”

“You told Adora about me?” Scorpia asked, her eyes beginning to well up.

“Yeah, of course I did,” Catra said. “We had a long talk, like, right after the end of the war. I told her everything. She’s Adora. Of course I told her.”

“What did… what did she say?”

Catra smiled. “She said that she was glad that if she couldn’t be there, that someone as nice as you was there to look out for me. And she said I should apologize to you. Which I guess I did. Finally.”

“Adora’s really good for you, huh?” Scorpia said.

“Yeah,” Catra said. “She really is.”

Then, even more unexpectedly than everything else that had just happened, Catra crept off her chair and hugged Scorpia.

“Aww, Catra,” Scorpia said. “I just wanted you to be able to be yourself. The real Catra, who’s good and kind and funny. I’m so glad you made it.”

“Stop being nice! You’re one-upping me. I’m trying to be the nice one!”

“OK… uh… you’re dumb… and bad… I can’t do it, I can’t be mean.”

Catra broke the hug and said, “I know. Come on, let’s set up all this stuff you brought. Did you bring an entire tea shop, what is this?”

“I got excited!” Scorpia said. “I like making stuff for people.”

There was the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, and Adora loudly saying, “And NOW we are RETURNING to the ROOM where the tea party is…”

“Hey, Adora,” Catra shouted. “Get in here, our guests should be arriving in like, ten minutes.”

“Yeah, where is everybody?” Scorpia asked. “The invitation said three o’clock, but it’s already 3:30. Usually the princesses are pretty punctual.”

“Adora padded the time so you’d get here early and we’d have time to talk,” Catra said, rolling her eyes.

Adora and Shelly walked back into the Bright Moon dining room.

“Hey, guys,” Adora said.

“How’d you like the Bright Moon archives?” Scorpia asked Shelly.

“Oh my gosh, they were great! I’ll tell you all about them later. Are you going to prepare the tea? Adora says lots of people are coming!”

The four of them rushed around the table putting all of Scorpia’s stuff in place and preparing a few kettles of different types of tea: Scorpia’s family recipe, a spiced blend from Selenium, a glittery purple tea that Adora had gotten from Glimmer, and a blood orange infusion that Scorpia had put together with fruits from the new citrus trees growing in the Scorpion Kingdom.

“Uggghhh,” said Mermista, who had just arrived. “I spent all morning fixing you guys’ terrible table settings, and now you went and added a bunch of stuff. The décor is _totally_ off now.”

“I think it looks fantastic!” Sea Hawk said. “The only thing that could improve it is some ambient tea candles!” He pulled what was clearly a firework out of his pocket, and Mermista snatched it away.

Glimmer teleported in with Bow on her arm.

“I brought party games!” she said. “Well, Bow brought party games.”

Bow opened his bag to reveal a full set of figurines.

“We can do tabletop roleplay! I already tested it out with Glimmer.”

“Yeah, we spent six hours yesterday roleplaying Bow and Glimmer: Space Adventures!”

“I am not doing that,” Catra said.

More people rolled in- this was a bigger party than Scorpia had thought.

“You ok with all these people?” she asked Shelly, who was curled up on a chair and looking nervous.

“Yes,” Shelly said. “I’m just really excited to meet so many cool people!”

“It’s gonna be great!” Scorpia said.

“Hey, Scorpia,” said a voice, and Scorpia looked up to see Perfuma standing next to her. Her eyes widened- instead of Perfuma’s usual pink dress and flower crown, she was in a little off-the-shoulder dark purple dress, and her hair was completely loose, hanging in wild soft curls over her bare skin. Scorpia had the sudden urge to run her hands through Perfuma’s hair.

Perfuma blushed and smiled, and Scorpia realized she hadn’t said anything in at least ten seconds, and she quickly said, “You- wow, you look great!”

“Thanks,” Perfuma said. “I was inspired by that dress you wore at the music festival. I thought I’d make a dress the color of violets, too.”

“I didn’t even know we were supposed to dress up,” Scorpia said.

“Oh- we weren’t. I just thought it’d be fun.”

“Well, it looks amazing! Here, sit down.” She got up and pulled out a chair for Perfuma next to her. “How are you?”

“Pretty good,” Perfuma said. “Plumeria’s really been thriving. We usually have lots of produce in the summer, but the She Ra magic has made it even better. Everyone is really happy.”

“Wow,” Scorpia said. “That sounds amazing. Man, I wish I could say the same about the Scorpion Kingdom. Sometimes I feel like I’m not helping at all.”

“What are you talking about?” Shelly said. “You’re amazing! If it weren’t for you, none of us would be back in our homeland. Everyone looks up to you.”

“Really?” Scorpia said. “I thought I was kind of a let-down. I don’t know anything about our culture. I’m kinda making it up as I go along, you know?”

“Scorpia, our culture was stolen from us. We’re _all_ making it up as we go along, honestly. You’re so cool- you’re a scorpion woman and you’re a badass!” Shelly grinned. “I never had any role models who looked like me, except my mom. Trust me, you’re helping all of us.” Then she squealed and said, “Is that Entrapta? Oh my God it’s Entrapta can I please go over and say hi? Would that be weird?”

Scorpia laughed. “Entrapta loves meeting new people, especially if they’re weird.”

“Okay!” Shelly said, and launched herself over to the door where Entrapta was.

Perfuma was smiling at Scorpia, with one of those smiles she had that was as bright as a sunflower.

“Your people are so lucky to have you as their princess,” she said. “You know that, right?”

Scorpia smiled shyly.

“It’s tough to remember sometimes,” she said. “But gosh, people are being so nice to me lately. It’s really helpful when people tell me nice things about myself, I think. It makes it easier to remember that I can do this.”

Perfuma reached out a hand and brushed Scorpia’s arm. The touch felt, for some reason, electrically warm.

“Well, if you ever need anyone to tell you how great you are, I’m always here,” she said.

“Thanks, flower,” Scorpia said. “Uh- can I call you that sometimes? I like giving my friends nicknames.”

“Yes, it is totally OK,” Perfuma said. Her voice sounded somewhat strained, but still happy, so Scorpia figured it was actually OK.

“OK then, flower!” she said, and Perfuma laughed. “Oh- wait! Do you want to come see the garden I started? It’s not really a garden, more like a collection of potted plants. I was actually kinda hoping you’d help me turn it into an actual garden.”

“Of course! That sounds amazing.”

“You sure you have the time? I don’t want to take away from your royal duties.”

Perfuma shrugged. “I make time for my friends. And like I said, things are going really well in Plumeria. It’s funny how a normal amount of work seems like nothing now that we don’t have to worry about a war.”

“Tell me about it,” Scorpia said. “Even the crazy amount of work it takes to rebuild my whole kingdom isn’t as hard as… well… you know. All the stuff we went through.”

“Yeah,” Perfuma said, and sighed.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to make you sad!”

“You didn’t, don’t worry,” Perfuma said. “I was just thinking that you and the ORSK could probably use some help. And the other kingdoms could probably spare some help. I’ll talk to the other princesses and put something together. I bet lots of people would be happy to help you out.”

“That’s a good idea,” Scorpia said. “Thank you so much!”

There was a sudden loud banging from the other side of the room, and the two of them looked away from each other to see what was going on. Glimmer was standing on a side table (Bow standing nearby looking nervously at the unsteady table legs) and banging on a pot with a wooden spoon.

“Princesses!” she said. “And guests! You are probably wondering why we invited you all here to have a tea party! OK, well, part of it is because me and Adora thought it would be really fun, but part of it is because I wanted to make an announcement. As you know, I brought the Princess Alliance back together for the purpose of fighting the Horde. Well, now the fight is over, and we won.” There was a small cheer, mostly made up of Frosta shouting and punching the floor with an ice fist. “Yeah, so- the thing is, I still think we could use a Princess Alliance. This time not against an enemy, but _for_ Etheria. We could help one another and start different, like, committees or whatever, I don’t know what they’d be called, but you know. For stuff like the arts and history and helping people recover from the war.”

“Hey, Perfuma had the same idea!” Scorpia shouted. Everyone turned to look at her, and she waved a claw awkwardly. “Oh- sorry for interrupting, Glimmer! Perfuma just told me the same idea!”

Perfuma turned red and waved too. “I just said we should probably send some resources to Scorpia’s kingdom. They’re rebuilding from scratch and they could use help.”

“Exactly!” Glimmer said. “Cause, like, I know everybody is doing their own projects, like how Bright Moon’s arts department put together that music festival last week- thanks again, Harmony!” she said, gesturing towards a tall woman sitting in the corner who was wearing a sheet-music-patterned suit. “But we should be helping each other, too. We should reopen the culture of Etherians all working together freely, like we used to before the Horde came.”

“Just like I always said,” chimed in Castaspella, who was sitting near Glimmer’s makeshift podium.

“Anyway… uh, what do you guys think?” Glimmer asked.

Everyone made a general cheer of assent.

“Yay!” Glimmer said. “OK, well, how about we make this a long-standing appointment? This day every month, we all meet here for tea and discussing what we can do to help each other. We’ll start this month by figuring out how to help the Scorpion Kingdom with their rebuilding.”

She jumped off the table and started running around the room, gathering information, which Bow wrote down on a clipboard. Scorpia, inexplicably, felt her eyes burning.

“Are you OK?” Perfuma asked gently, placing a hand on Scorpia’s arm.

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “It’s weird- I don’t know why, but I thought nobody would want to help us. I know how nice you all are, but for some reason I thought… Maybe I thought I didn’t deserve help.”

“Oh, Scorpia,” Perfuma said. “Yes, you do. You deserve everything good.”

Scorpia felt more burning at her eyes, and she didn’t want to start crying in the middle of this really nice tea party, so she said, “Hey, you still want to come help me figure out that garden?”

“Yes!” Perfuma said. “Can I come tomorrow?”

“Sure, but it’ll have to be in the morning. I’m busy all afternoon.”

“It’s a date,” Perfuma said, her eyes shining, and Scorpia’s stomach filled with butterflies. What was going on? Why was she so mesmerized by Perfuma today? Come to think of it, she thought about Perfuma a lot. Her beautiful smile and how nice she was and _oh my God Scorpia was an idiot._

“I’m gonna go grab some fresh air,” she said. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

“See you soon,” Perfuma said, and Scorpia darted out of the dining room and rushed down the hallway into the Bright Moon gardens.

The afternoon was just beginning to slide into a gorgeous summer evening, and Scorpia had to gulp in a huge breath of air.

She turned to the rosebush and said, “Guys, you are not gonna believe it, but I think I _just_ realized that I have a crush on Perfuma.”

The roses swayed in the gentle breeze.

“I know, right? Not the most convenient thing to happen. She is the best and I don’t want to ruin our friendship with being, you know. Obsessive. You know how _I_ can get.”

She sat down and leaned back on her claws, watching the butterflies and magical light sparkles float through the air.

“Gosh, I gotta be honest. I thought I was never gonna have feelings for any girl ever again. I kinda thought I just shut down that part of my heart, you know? Just decided to stick to friendship only. I can be a pretty great friend!”

She sighed. The roses sat still and listened.

“I guess I’ll have to try and rein in any romantic feelings. Perfuma’s a really good friend and I am not going to scare her off. I got this.”

She looked over at the roses and said, “Thanks for listening,” and headed back inside to the room full of her friends.


	4. Detachment

When Perfuma arrived in the desolate stretch of dirt that served as the former Fright Zone’s new parking lot, she was greeted not by Scorpia, but by a person she didn’t recognize who also had large claws and short hair.

“Hey,” she said tentatively, adjusting her wide-brimmed hat. She’d dressed for the new levels of sunlight that were hitting the Scorpion Kingdom, and also a little bit to look cute. So sue her- she wasn’t going to try and seduce Scorpia if Scorpia wasn’t ready, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try out cute looks. Today she was wearing overalls made from baby pink denim, embroidered with tiny white flowers, and her hat was decorated with a wreath of lilacs.

The person hanging around in the parking lot didn’t seem impressed. They didn’t seem to notice Perfuma, engrossed in putting up a sign with parking instructions.

“Hey,” she said, a bit louder. “Do you- uh, do you happen to know where Scorpia is?”

“Oh, hi,” they said, finally noticing her. “No idea. Did she know you were coming? Usually she waits around here to greet her guests.”

“Oh,” Perfuma said. “Uh, yeah, we planned to meet today. I was going to help her with her garden?”

The scorpion’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’re Perfuma? Ha, yeah, she did know you were coming today. We only had to hear about it for an hour at dinner last night. Come on, I’ll lead you to the garden. I’m Crabby, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” Perfuma said. She adjusted her bag and followed Crabby down the short path to the campsite. Around them were more scorpion people than Perfuma had ever seen in her life. They were all busy, cooking, building, having serious discussions around piles of books and a big chalkboard covered in writing.

“Wow,” Perfuma said, as Crabby led her through the large campsite in the direction of a building mid-construction. She’d just been to the old Fright Zone a few months ago, and it had still looked miserable. Now it was brightening, beginning to develop into a real place with some heart. “Scorpia did all this?”

“ _We_ did all this,” Crabby corrected. “Don’t mistake the work of a whole people for the work of its leader.”

“Of course not,” Perfuma said. “I didn’t mean to belittle all of your accomplishments. I guess I’m just impressed.”

“That’ll teach you to underestimate a scorpion,” Crabby said. “Scorpia’s a good leader, and we’re a strong people. We’re all happy to finally be home.”

“Yeah, of course,” Perfuma said. “It must have been so hard to be away from your home for so long.”

Crabby nodded. “I was relocated to the Crimson Waste. Not an easy existence, growing up there. I was just sent back here about a month ago, when Scorpia did outreach to the Waste.” They suddenly smiled. “Huntara told me about you, by the way.”

“Did she?” Perfuma asked, blushing a bit.

“Yes, she described you as, what were her words… ‘one of those femme girls who goes wild for me’. I can see what drew you to Scorpia.”

Perfuma turned completely red and covered her face with her hands.

“Oh my God, did Huntara really say that?” she said, pausing mid-step.

“Relax!” Crabby said. “She thought you were cute. So does Scorpia.”

Perfuma did a double take.

“What?” she asked, uncovering her eyes. “Did- did she say- what did she say?”

“I told you, she talked our ears off about how great you are for a full hour.”

“Oh,” Perfuma said. “She does that about everyone. She really loves her friends.”

“Sure,” Crabby said, rolling their eyes. “Come on, I have work to do today, I don’t have all day to reassure you how cute you are. That’s the new palace, by the way. We’re rebuilding the Scorpion Kingdom to be stronger than ever.”

“It’s really impressive,” Perfuma said, staring up at the tall scaffolding. Around it, the beginnings of a beautiful palace were forming, completely different from the harsh infrastructure that had been there before.

“It sure is,” Crabby said. “Well, the garden- it’s more of a patio at the moment- is right around that bend. Nice meeting you, Perfuma.”

“Same!” she said, and waved goodbye as Crabby headed off.

She took a deep breath to recollect herself. She knew she was blatantly obvious every time she saw a hot woman, but it was still a little embarrassing to realize just how obvious she’d been about Huntara. And did Crabby really think that Scorpia liked her? They seemed like a fairly cynical person, so if _they_ thought Scorpia was into her…

Maybe Scorpia was more ready for dating than Perfuma thought. She didn’t want to rush anything, though. More than anything, she wanted Scorpia to feel safe, especially after what she’d learned about her and Catra.

Carefully, she made her way into the garden, which, to be fair, was essentially a tiled patio covered in a chaotic family of potted plants, and lined with an overgrown patch of mint. Scorpia was walking around it with a large watering can, carefully pouring water into each container. Her armor was glistening in the sunlight, and she held the decidedly heavy watering can with ease, gracefully gripping the handle in her claws.

Perfuma released an involuntary sigh, causing Scorpia to accidentally splash water all over the leaves of the eggplant babies.

“P-Perfuma!” she said, and set down the watering can. “Hey, I’m so glad you made it! You still want to help with the garden?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, there’s so much interesting stuff to see around here. I don’t want you to feel like you have to help me.”

“Don’t be silly, Scorpia,” Perfuma said. “You’re my friend. I want to help you. And I love gardening!”

Scorpia brightened. “OK, well, I have a _lot_ of questions.”

She led Perfuma around the small patio, showing her all the different plants. She was clearly trying her best, but also clearly was making it up as she went along. Perfuma knelt by the tomato plant, which was drooping and small, and gently placed her hands in the soil. She closed her eyes, listening. It was tired and hungry. It had enough water, but the soil wasn’t very good. The soil in the area had clearly been sapped of nutrients over the years.

“What’s it saying?” Scorpia said gently. She was standing above Perfuma.

Perfuma smiled, her eyes still closed. “Most people ask me what the hell I think I’m doing when I listen to plants. They think I’m crazy.”

“Of course you’re listening to them,” Scorpia said. “You have plant magic.”

Perfuma opened her eyes and looked up at Scorpia.

“My plant magic looks a lot more impressive when I’m making giant vines shoot out of the earth to destroy enemies,” she said. “But the real heart of it is here- listening. Understanding. Remembering that the world is so full of so many different types of life, and they are all so different, and so beautiful.”

“Exactly!” Scorpia said. “Being different is what’s so great about being alive! I wish I learned that a lot earlier. The Horde didn’t like, uh, people being different from each other.”

Perfuma got up and placed a hand on Scorpia’s arm. Scorpia tensed under her touch, so she took it away.

“Hey,” she said. “Your differences are what make you beautiful.”

Scorpia smiled, turning a little red. “Entrapta says that, too.”

“Well, it’s true.” Perfuma turned to look back at the tomato plant, which was standing up a bit straighter after being touched by Perfuma. “Listen, I have a lot of gardening materials that I think could help you. You need better soil, and fertilizer.”

“What’s fertilizer?” Scorpia asked.

“Oh, uh... I’ll send some over. Do you have any areas in the kingdom where wild plants are growing? That might help me get an understanding of the climate here.”

“Well, there’s some places where plants started growing after the whole She Ra healing thing,” Scorpia said. “But not a lot. I mean, the Fright Zone never really had any plants. We have a committee working on replanting some of the native plants, but uh… we’re kind of under-staffed? And we have no idea what we’re doing?”

“Listen,” Perfuma said, looking directly in Scorpia’s eyes. “The Princess Alliance is going to help you out. We have all sorts of environmental scientists and people who would love to help rework the environment here. And Adora can also come and help! Her healing magic will really help revitalize the soil. Can you show me any of the places where any replanting’s been happening?”

“Sure!” Scorpia said. “Come on!”

She led her down around the construction site of the palace, being unusually quiet- normally Scorpia chattered on about everything on her mind, but now she seemed a bit distant.

They passed more construction sites, where Scorpia greeted each worker by name and asked how they were doing. She was as chatty as ever with them, but with Perfuma she was somehow off. What was that about?

After ten or fifteen minutes of walking through mostly-desolate areas that grew only haphazard patches of grass and remnants of rusted metal buildings, the ground opened up into what appeared to be a large valley. It sloped down a few miles, leading to a black-watered lake, around which grew ferns and even a few tropical trees, shining emerald green.

“The replanting effort started down there,” Scorpia said, pointing to an abandoned section of ground that had clearly been tilled and planted with all sorts of saplings. “The team told me they really didn’t know what they were doing, and I said we could focus on planting later if they wanted, and they all were really talented at all sorts of different things. Like Ruster, for example, they’re amazing at art and so I sent them to prepare all sorts of murals and paintings about scorpion history! And Stingerelle is an amazing leader, so I let her lead the project to build housing! It does mean that, well, this place isn’t looking so great. But…” Scorpia bunched up her arms, looking nervous, and she stared at the blue sky. “Maybe the Princess Alliance will be able to help us.”

“Of _course_ we will,” Perfuma said.

Scorpia sighed and ran a claw over her head.

“Scorpia,” Perfuma said, tentatively. “Are you okay? I hope it’s OK that I say this, but you seem a little distant today. Did I do something wrong?”

“What?” Scorpia said, turning to face Perfuma. “No, of course not! You’re great! I just… I really don’t want to ever pressure you into doing things you don’t want to do. I get really, really enthusiastic about things, and that’s not really fun for my friends.”

Perfuma cocked her head to the side in confusion.

“How is you being enthusiastic not fun for your friends?” she asked.

“Because… because sometimes people aren’t enthusiastic about the same things as me. Which is okay! But it means that I can be very…” She hugged herself with her claws. “Annoying. I can be very annoying.”

“Scorpia,” Perfuma said softly, and reached out tentatively to take one of Scorpia’s claws. “Can I… um… can I say something?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not annoying. You probably annoyed someone once or twice, which everyone does. But _you_ are not annoying. Your enthusiasm is wonderful! That’s what your friends love about you.”

“Really?” Scorpia asked.

“Really. And guess what? In this case, the thing you’re enthusiastic about is the _exact_ same thing I’m enthusiastic about. Because not only do I care about your kingdom, and not only do all your friends care about your kingdom- but I really, really love plants. I don’t know if you remember, but it’s kind of my thing.”

Scorpia laughed and smiled at Perfuma. Perfuma’s heart warmed.

“I especially care about helping plants regrow in a place where they weren’t safe before,” she continued. “By the time I was born, the Fright Zone was already, well, the way it looked when you were born too, I guess. I’ve never known what it’s supposed to look like, but I’d love to see it.”

“Oh!” Scorpia said suddenly. Her face was brightening again. “Then you have to see the research we have! Bow’s dads helped me out with it. Let me take you to our official library. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s where we keep all our books and documents.”

Scorpia chattered on endlessly on the way to the small hut where they housed the library, which meant Perfuma was wearing a giant smile the entire time, enchanted by Scorpia’s enthusiasm.

In the library, which was just a small room with a few shelves, Scorpia carefully pulled out a binder, which she set down on a nearby desk.

“Look inside,” she said, and Perfuma walked over and opened the binder to see a whole bunch of documents in plastic-wrapped pages. She flipped through and gasped: pictures. Paintings, photographs, sketches, even diary entries.

All the pictures showed scenes of greenery the likes of which Perfuma had never seen: a thriving tropical jungle, filled with vines and huge fronds, rainbow butterflies and three-eyed wildcats. The flowers were the colors of sunsets and there were so many layers of green that in some parts, the sun couldn’t even reach the ground, but Perfuma could see that the soil was still rich and black with nutrients.

“What is this?” she asked.

“That,” Scorpia said, “is what my kingdom used to look like before the Horde.”

Perfuma covered her mouth with her hands. “Where did you find these?”

“Bright Moon University’s archives,” Scorpia said. “The Horde destroyed all of our kingdom’s records on ourselves, but the other kingdoms still had old records. People who visited here, like, scientists and historians and stuff. There’s so much good stuff in there that I honestly don’t understand.”

Perfuma felt tears prickle in her eyes.

“Aw, Perfuma, what’s going on?” Scorpia asked. She came around the table and placed a claw tentatively on the table, and Perfuma took it with her hand and squeezed, the smooth and sure metal comforting her.

“All of this life,” she said finally. “This is… the most beautiful forest I’ve ever seen. Well, OK, all forests are beautiful, but this one is magnificent. And it’s just, it’s just gone.”

“Oh,” Scorpia said. “I, uh. I never thought about it that way. I never even knew it was here. Should I be more sad about this?”

“No,” Perfuma said, and she took her hand off Scorpia’s claw and sat in a nearby chair. She curled her legs to her chest. “I’m sorry, I really am, Scorpia. I don’t mean to be so negative.”

“Hey,” Scorpia said. “A pretty smart princess told me that sometimes acknowledging the negative things can help you nurture the positive ones.”

Perfuma looked up at Scorpia, who was kneeling on the floor next to her and looking at her with wide, genuine, empathetic eyes. She felt the urge to reach over and kiss her, but instead she just smiled.

“You’re right, of course,” she said. “And there’s something great here. Now we know that this place has the potential for a beautiful rainforest. We have a blueprint!”

They spent the next hour planning, and arranged for a meeting with Adora at Bright Moon to discuss whether she could help with her She Ra healing magic, and how that could intersect with Perfuma’s plant magic. By the time Perfuma left the Scorpion Kingdom and headed back to Plumeria, she was brimming over with ideas. She ended up being somewhat distracted the rest of the day, either thinking of some great new plan, or remembering Scorpia’s smile and how sweet she was.

She collapsed into bed and sighed, thinking about Scorpia. Warmth spread throughout her chest and her face, and pink roses manifested in a line along her bedframe.

“Shhh,” she muttered to them- it had been a long day, and she was tired. “She’s really wonderful. She seemed a little off today, though- I wonder what that was about. Oh, I hope I’m not being too forward with her. I can’t wait to see her again on Friday. Hmm, I wonder what I should wear. She looks so cute no matter what she wears…”

More roses bloomed, and Perfuma sighed, “Okay, I need to go to sleep.”

Perfuma arrived way too early at Bright Moon and started pacing nervously in the great hall. No one paid her much attention until Glimmer strolled in from one of the meeting rooms and was startled.

“Perfuma!” she said. “Uh… is our meeting _now?_ I thought it was in two hours.”

“It is in two hours,” Perfuma said, running her hands over each other. “Thought I’d arrive nice and early.”

“Are you OK?” Glimmer asked. “You seem… really nervous.”

Perfuma smiled, nervously. “Is it that obvious? I’m sorry, I’m overthinking something.”

“Well, I have some free time to spend with a friend,” Glimmer said. “Come on, let’s go to the Bright Moon kitchens. They’re the coziest.”

Perfuma followed Glimmer down a set of stairs into a large room full of kitchen equipment, then off to the side where there was a lovely alcove covered in cushions. She took a seat, and Glimmer grabbed a fresh loaf of bread and some butter and jam, which she put on the small table.

“What’s going on?” Glimmer asked.

“Oh, it’s probably nothing,” Perfuma said, spreading a slice of bread with butter. “I just… does Scorpia seem mad at me lately?”

To her surprise, Glimmer laughed.

“What? What’s funny?”

“Perfuma,” Glimmer said. “No, Scorpia is not mad at you. Why do you think that?”

“Well, I went to visit her on Monday and she was a bit distant. And I’ve been messaging her all week about my ideas for revitalizing her kingdom’s flora, but she gives me really short answers. She doesn’t seem as excited as she usually does, you know? I don’t want to put pressure on her to perform excitement for me, but I’m worried something might be wrong.”

Glimmer chewed her bread pensively, then said, “Have you considered that Scorpia might just be really busy? She is rebuilding an entire kingdom, you know.”

“I guess,” Perfuma said. “But she’s been rebuilding her kingdom for a while now, and only just has she been like this.”

“I mean, how often do you two normally message each other?” Glimmer asked.

“Usually a couple times a day! I told her a few weeks ago that she could talk to me whenever she wanted, and since then we’ve been talking all the time. But lately it’s been… I don’t know. I feel like she’s been sort of detached, like she’s repressing her feelings or something…”

Glimmer laughed again, so Perfuma said, “Seriously, what is it?”

“I’m sorry,” Glimmer said, still laughing. “You just remind me of- Adora! What are you doing?”

There was a crash on the other side of the kitchen. Perfuma turned her head to see Adora, her arms full of pastries, desperately trying to close a cabinet with her elbows.

“Uh, heyyy Glimmer!” she said. “And Perfuma! You’re here too! To see me do this. Perfect. How bad would it be if I became She Ra to close this cabinet?”

“It would be ridiculous,” Glimmer said. “One second.”

She teleported over and closed the cabinet for Adora, then handed her a bowl to hold the pastries.

“Actually, Adora,” she added, “do you mind staying for a second and listening to Perfuma?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Adora said. “I thought our meeting was in two hours though?”

“It is,” Perfuma said. “Sorry, I came early! I was telling Glimmer about some of my personal problems.”

“Oh?” Adora said, walking over. “Is something going on?”

“It’s nothing,” Perfuma said.

“Just tell me who she reminds you of,” Glimmer said. “Perfuma, tell her about Scorpia.”

Perfuma raised her eyebrows, not sure what was going on, and said, “Uh… I’m worried that Scorpia might be mad at me, or in a bad place? Cause she hasn’t messaged me in a while, I mean she _has,_ but they’ve been pretty short messages. I know she has her own life and she’s busy, and I don’t want her to feel pressured into interacting with me, it’s just that I’m worried she might be repressing something. She does that a lot. Do you think she’s okay?”

Adora was glaring at Glimmer, who was laughing again.

“I do _not_ sound like that!” Adora said.

“Yes, you do, don’t you remember when Catra locked herself in that treehouse and you were convinced she was having an episode and it turns out she was just mad that you didn’t give her enough cereal for breakfast?”

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Could you two please let me know what you’re talking about?” Perfuma asked, perplexed.

Adora let out a long sigh of exasperation, gave Glimmer one last pointed glare, and turned to Perfuma. “ _Glimmer_ thinks that I’m overprotective of Catra and that I ‘don’t shut up about her’. She calls me a useless lesbian! That’s bullying!”

“It is not bullying, it’s harsh honesty,” Glimmer said. “And what about the real victim, me? All my friends are useless lesbians, apparently.”

“Is this something to do with Scorpia?” Perfuma asked, and Glimmer laughed harder.

“Don’t let her bully you,” Adora said. “You and Scorpia are a totally healthy couple.”

“What?” Perfuma exclaimed. “We- we’re not- I mean, I would _like_ that- but I’m trying to give her space!”

Adora tilted her head to the side. “Are you and Scorpia not dating? Catra told me that you’re in love with her.”

Perfuma’s entire face turned bright red.

“I did _not_ tell Catra that,” she said. “I… admitted, perhaps… that… I mean, come _on_ , you guys have seen her. Everyone’s kind of in love with her.”

“No, girl, it’s just you,” Glimmer said. “We all love her, but you’re definitely kind of extremely gay for her.”

“I know that,” Perfuma said. “I just don’t want to assume that she feels the same way.”

This time, Adora laughed too.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Adora said. “I know I shouldn’t laugh, it’s just that it’s super obvious to everyone with eyes that she absolutely feels the same way.”

“You’re one to talk,” Glimmer said. “Me and Bow thought you and Catra were having makeup sex the entire ride home from Prime headquarters, and you thought Catra, I quote, ‘wasn’t into you that way’.”

“Shut uuuup,” Adora said, covering her eyes. This was clearly not the first time Glimmer had roasted her for this.

“Do you really think Scorpia feels that way?” Perfuma asked.

“Yes,” Glimmer and Adora said simultaneously.

“Then why has she been so distant?”

“Uh,” Adora said. “Speaking as someone who’s dating her ex, it’s probably because she has kind of a bad experience with dating? I love Catra so much, but I don’t think she made Scorpia feel like… good about dating.”

“That’s fair,” Perfuma said, picking at the breadcrumbs on her plate.

“Yeah,” Glimmer said. “She’s probably super nervous. And she probably has no idea how to initiate a healthy relationship.”

“ _Now_ look who’s talking,” Adora muttered.

“Shut up, Adora. The point is, you should reach out to Scorpia. Make the first move. Do something that makes her feel secure in this relationship.”

“Yes, but I really don’t want to pressure her,” Perfuma said.

“You’re not pressuring her by asking her out,” Glimmer said. “That’s why it’s called _asking._ And if she says no, you can still be friends. Friends still do nice things for each other and care about each other.”

“Plus, no way in hell she’s gonna say no,” Adora added.

“You can literally ask her out today,” Glimmer said. “After the meeting.”

“What?” Perfuma said. “Oh my God, that’s way too soon. I am not ready for that. I have to, like, prepare a speech.”

“No, you don’t,” Glimmer said. “OK, how about this? We could go on a group date. Me and Bow, Catra and Adora, and you and Scorpia. Maybe that would make her less nervous. It could just be a tentative thing.”

“Actually, that might be a good idea,” Perfuma said. “She’s been really stressed with all her work lately. She needs some time off to spend with her friends.”

Glimmer’s eyes lit up, and she looked at Adora.

“Mystacor!” she said. “A de-stressing vacation! We could all use a weekend off.”

“Uh, not this weekend,” Adora said. “You have that conference with the Council of Agriculture, remember?”

“Ugggh,” Glimmer said. “Being the queen _sucks._ ”

“But that’s still a really good idea!” Perfuma said. “You’re right- de-stressing is really important for all of us. And I’ve never seen the parts of Mystacor that aren’t, you know. When we went last time.”

“It’s actually really nice,” Glimmer said. “Aunt Casta told me they’ve repaired the whole city. It’s a beautiful place with lots of beaches and spas and great views.”

“That sounds amazing,” Perfuma said.

“If we go _next_ weekend,” Adora said, “I think we’d have a great time. If we can keep Catra away from that statue of Shadow Weaver.”

“Oh, they’ve fully taken that down,” Glimmer said.

“Good,” Adora said.

“Plus,” Glimmer said, “if the romantic atmosphere leads to you and Scorpia getting together, then that’d be a lovely bonus.”

Perfuma blushed again.

“That’s not why I’m going,” she said. “I want to be a good friend to her because I care about her, not just because she’s hot.”

Adora and Glimmer started laughing again, and Perfuma smiled at them. Sometimes she forgot what it was like to worry about normal things like relationships. It was nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> couple things:  
> 1\. I've been titling each chapter after a different emotion, and the reason this title is "detachment" is a bit subtle so I wanted to explain it. Scorpia has been detaching from Perfuma and her friends out of different fears, and she also is worried about how detached she feels from her own culture, which is less obvious here, but I want to explore that more later.  
> 2\. I'm noticing that like all the foods in this fic are pastries which is mainly because my love language is pastry lol  
> 3\. Catra hid in the treehouse because Adora filled her bowl only 99% full with cereal and she ran into the treehouse and declared that if Adora wanted her to starve to death then she was going to start hunting for her own food  
> 4\. the next chapter will not be Mystacor Vacation, it will be Scorpia Freaking Out About What It All Means, but the chapter after THAT will be Mystacor Vacation
> 
> hope you all enjoyed this! I hope it's not too fluffy or cheesy or, like, whatever... I just love these characters!


	5. Fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> turns out I love all the characters in She Ra and I want all of them to have some time in the spotlight! this is definitely a Scorpia characterization fic more than a romance fic after all. however, she and Perfuma still very gay and get ready for that medium burn  
> WARNING: there is a decent amount of Entrapdak in this chapter. I know the ship isn't everyone's thing, but I think they're kind of fun, and they're here pretty much entirely in the context of Scorpia's friendship with Entrapta and her mixed feelings about forgiving Hordak. so, hopefully, if you don't like Entrapdak, you will still like this chapter!
> 
> Leave a comment and let me know what you think! All of your comments have been so nice and warmed my heart!!!

The Princess Alliance was so nice, Scorpia thought. Adora had visited the Scorpion Kingdom almost right away to use her healing magic on the land, which helped a lot. Every kingdom had sent over some workers, including Sea Hawk, who came with a note from Mermista that said, “Keep him as long as possible. I need to sleep without hearing sea shanties.” Entrapta had already built prototypes of construction bots that were compatible with scorpion claws. And Perfuma…

Yeah, Scorpia probably shouldn’t think too much about Perfuma. Her brain was latching onto her obsessive train of Perfuma thoughts to cobble together dreams that were very enjoyable but very awkward to wake up in the middle of.

It was fun to have Sea Hawk around, though- it provided the opportunity for near-constant duets, which, to Scorpia’s surprise, were met with applause by her fellow scorpions.

“Wait!” Shelly shouted, one night after Scorpia and Sea Hawk had serenaded the group around the campfire with a rambling sea shanty. “I got my mom to tell me some traditional scorpion songs yesterday...” She fished in her bag and handed over a notebook, opened to a page covered in rough-scrawled lyrics. “Here, I’ll help you sing it.”

The ORSK had grown to over a hundred members. Scorpia made sure she knew everyone’s name and a little about their personality, but she tended to have dinner each night with a small circle of friends: Shelly, Pincer, Sea Hawk, and a few others. Pincer, the official chef of the movement, made spectacular dinners each night that everyone came to get a little of.

Scorpia and Shelly fumbled their way through their first attempt at the classic song “Claws in the Moonlight,” but after a few tries, it sounded pretty good.

“I’m really proud of you,” Scorpia said. “When I was a teenager, I was way too scared to sing in front of other people. And I didn’t know anything about scorpion culture! You’re doing great.”

She turned to face the rest of the group and added, “That goes for all of you. I am so proud of this group! The Super Scorpion Pals!”

“Aww, thank you,” Shelly said, and everyone in the group chimed in with general feelings of good will.

Scorpia’s device went off, and she grabbed it to check. She inhaled sharply: a message from Perfuma! Oh, God. She had been trying _really_ hard to be super casual with Perfuma to not scare her off. She hoped it was working- Perfuma was still friends with her, and had even invited her to some sort of vacation thing with Adora, Catra, Glimmer, and Bow.

The message read, “Hey Scorpia! Excited to hang out with you this weekend <3”

What was that at the end? Was that… Scorpia turned the device sideways. Was that a _heart?_ She gasped.

“What’s up, Scorpia?” Sea Hawk asked. He’d come over to get more food. The rest of the group seemed engrossed in discussing their new projects.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Scorpia said. “Just…” She groaned and set down her device, then put her head in her claws.

Sea Hawk sat down next to her.

“Hey, you can tell me,” he said. “It’s me- Sea Hawk! I give excellent advice.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Scorpia said. “I don’t know, it’s a little embarrassing.”

“More embarrassing than the time I took Mermista on a rowboat for a date and we almost drowned and burned to death?”

“OK, probably not,” Scorpia said, laughing. Sea Hawk was definitely the right person to talk to. “It’s… well. I think I have feelings for, uh, for Perfuma.”

“What? That’s amazing! Oh, you should ask her on a date! I would not recommend going on a rowboat, though.”

“That’s the thing,” Scorpia said. “I don’t think I should ask her out. Because I don’t think she feels that way about me.”

Sea Hawk narrowed his eyebrows. “Why do you think that?”

“I just do.”

“How can you be sure unless you ask?”

“I can’t ask unless I’m sure she likes me, because if she _doesn’t_ like me, then I’m being creepy and scary.”

“That’s not true,” Sea Hawk said. “Was _I_ creepy and scary when I charged into Mermista’s birthday party last year singing a song I’d written about her?”

“That’s different,” Scorpia said. “Mermista likes you.”

“OK, hold on,” Sea Hawk said. “Mermista is the light of my life, and I know she cares about me, but I also know that she kicks me out of her kingdom at least once a month. Meanwhile, I don’t know much about you and Perfuma, but I’ve seen you two interact, and she is always smiling and wanting to spend more time with you.”

“That’s just Perfuma,” Scorpia said. “She’s an angel to everyone. She always has that smile that makes you feel like she’s the sun and you’re the most important flower in the world.”

“You could say the same thing about Mermista,” Sea Hawk said, sighing with a dreamy look in his eyes.

“Um…” Scorpia said. She liked Mermista, but that seemed off. “I don’t think so? Mermista’s cool, but she’s not exactly… uh… sunshiney.”

“But that’s exactly the point,” Sea Hawk said. “To the person that you love, you _become_ a wonderful ray of sunshine, glinting on the harsh sea.”

“So you’re saying I only see Perfuma that way because of my crazy feelings?”

“Yes! Well, Perfuma is quite nice to everyone, to be fair. But if you have crazy feelings, then that’s what life is all about! Love is an adventure!”

“I don’t know if Perfuma wants to take that adventure with _me_ ,” Scorpia said.

“Why not?”

“Because… because… because it’s _me!”_

The rest of the group turned to face them at this outburst.

“Sorry,” Scorpia said. “Go back to talking.”

She got up off her chair and headed out the door of the makeshift dining room, out to the campsite. The combination of work from the princesses and work from the team had led the area to sprout emerald grass, hanging vines, tall palm trees, and dark ferns, surrounded by buzzing insects. It felt something like home and something like an unknown darkness. Scorpia wasn’t sure which she wanted more.

“Hey,” said Sea Hawk, who had followed her outside. “Scorpia, I’m sorry if I upset you.”

She laughed hollowly, and looked up at the starry sky.

“You didn’t,” she said. “I guess I’m just still coming to terms with the fact that I have feelings for a girl again. I don’t like it. I like _her_ but I don’t like the feelings. They’re scary.”

“That’s part of it,” Sea Hawk said, quieter than his normal booming voice. “You have to be brave.”

“But I’m not brave.”

“Are you kidding me? Scorpia, you’re one of the bravest people I know. Hey- you love your kingdom, right? And your people?”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “I mean, I don’t know if I’m doing a good job at it-”

“Yeah, but you do it _anyway_ , right? You’ve been charging forward into this crazy adventure with no idea whether it’s gonna work. That’s because you’re brave. Be brave with Perfuma, too.”

“Try it, try it, try it!”

Entrapta was bouncing around her new claw-compatible forklift, rolling on top of Emily and then effortlessly transitioning to jumping off on her pigtails. Scorpia clicked her claws nervously.

“You sure this’ll work?” she asked.

“Of course I’m not sure!” Entrapta exclaimed. “That’s what makes it so exciting! But…” She took a deep breath. “ _If_ it reassures you, I will admit that based on my tests and statistical analyses, there is an extremely low chance of anything going wrong.”

Scorpia grinned. She’d missed hanging out with Entrapta. It was nice to have an excuse to spend time with her friend, and this trip to Dryl to test out equipment was an excellent excuse.

“In that case, let’s give it a try!” she said, and stuck her claws into the machine. The malleable metal squished awkwardly, then spread out and fit itself around the exact shape of her claws. She moved tentatively, and watched the forklift in front of her sway to the side.

“OK, so, what you have to do,” Entrapta said, peering in at the machine, “is move naturally- as if your claws _are_ the machine. See, I studied some scorpions who volunteered, and realized that claws have a natural tendency to grip and cut. The machine translates that movement into the movement of digging and lifting. Look through the eyepiece, that’ll help.”

Scorpia put her eyes in the eyepiece, which was disorienting for a moment, then became incredibly cool. It was like she’d been transformed into the machine.

“Pretend you’re grasping the dirt,” Entrapta instructed.

Scorpia reached forward, gasping excitedly when the forklift followed her movement. She reached down as the forklift went into the ground, and pinched her claws as if she was grabbing something. The forklift dug.

“OK, now make a clipping motion!”

The dirt lifted into the air.

“Oh my gosh!” Scorpia shouted. “That’s the coolest thing ever! Oh, Entrapta! How do I get out of this so I can give you a hug? This is gonna help so many of my workers- they tried covering their claws in pillows so they stopped stabbing the buttons on the machines, but then that made it worse, and this is so cool!”

“I know!” Entrapta shouted back, and helped Scorpia out of the machine. “Not only that, but this technology can be applied to more than just construction! I’m hoping to create something that will help with fine movements such as writing and typing.”

“That would be _amazing_ ,” Scorpia said. “I’m on my fifth communication device. Apparently scorpions used to have a communication system that was easier on the old claws, but none of the other kingdoms use it, and also, the whole Horde thing, and you know.”

“I do not know, actually, but I can guess! Come on, I’ll take you back to my lab!”

Entrapta kept explaining tech stuff on the way to the lab. Scorpia didn’t understand much of it, but she tried to keep up as best as she could.

When they arrived in the lab, Hordak was already in there, tinkering with some kind of computer. He said, “Hello, Entrapta dearest- _I- we have company?_ ”

Scorpia raised her eyebrows, but gave a friendly wave.

“Nice to see you?” she said tentatively.

“I told you Scorpia was coming!” Entrapta said, rolling her way over and, inexplicably, dropping a kiss on Hordak’s forehead. Scorpia’s eyes widened. “Oh, Scorpia, I completely forgot to inform you, there’s been an update in the status of my relationship with Hordak! In addition to being lab partners, we are _also_ romantic partners.”

“Yes, that, that’s accurate,” Hordak said, looking and sounding like he was descending into hell.

“I observed the patterns of the romantic relationships around me, and they helped explain the nature of my relationship with Hordak! For example, Glimmer and Bow’s tendencies to bond through their teamwork, or Catra and Adora’s attempted repression of their total admiration of each other- despite the fact that they actually bring each other great comfort! My compatibility with Hordak seemed to indicate a similar pattern. I proposed the change and… wait a minute. I should have asked if you were comfortable hearing about my personal life, huh?”

“Oh, uh, me? Uncomfortable? With this conversation?” Scorpia blustered. “No… I…”

“I’m sorry,” Hordak cut in, then collapsed onto a nearby chair. Entrapta’s hair wrapped itself around his shoulders. “I… This was unexpected.”

“Didn’t I tell you about Scorpia coming today?” Entrapta asked, in a softer voice.

“Yes, but… I didn’t expect… It is difficult for me to face the people that my invasion hurt,” Hordak said. Each word seemed to be hard for him to get out. “I don’t believe it’s fair for me to treat this as a casual visit.”

“Uh, it’s…” Scorpia stopped before saying the word _okay_ , because it wasn’t, and it was surreal enough to face the man who had ripped away the homeland she’d spent the last few months working her tail off to rebuild, but it was even weirder to see him being a normal person who was… _dating?_... one of her best friends. She’d never seen him be anything except an unreachable, angry general.

She swallowed the lump in her throat.

“You know,” she said, “I was also a Prime clone. For a while. So we kind of have some stuff in common. Weird, huh?”

Hordak looked up at her.

“There was a time when I’d have expected you to fear me,” he said. “Now I expect to fear you. How are you not striking me in retaliation?”

“I told you,” Entrapta said. “Because forgiveness isn’t an equation. People can’t be put into equations.”

Hordak nodded, and looked fondly at Entrapta, who nodded back at him.

“I’m not saying I forgive you for what you did to our planet, and you know, to my entire family and childhood,” Scorpia said. Hordak winced- another surreal thing to see. “I’m just saying that I want to move forward. And I can’t do that if the only thing I want is to be angry at you. Plus, I trust Entrapta, and she trusts you, and I don’t think you can do much more harm to this planet with Entrapta around watching you.”

“That is accurate!” Entrapta chimed in.

Hordak looked a bit dumbstruck.

Finally, he said, “Thank you, Scorpia.”

“Do you want to be alone?” Entrapta asked, which was also surprising, and Hordak said, “Yes,” and so Entrapta led Scorpia out of the lab. They headed down to the expansive kitchens to load up on tiny empanadas.

“So, you and Hordak, huh?” Scorpia asked.

“What are you asking about us?” Entrapta responded, popping a pastry in her mouth.

“Nothing, really. Just… wow, I… it’s kind of cool that you just decided to start a relationship, and it happened.”

“It was far from a quick process!” Entrapta said. “Would you like to see my data charts?”

“Nah, I probably wouldn’t understand them,” Scorpia said. “But is it OK if I ask you questions?”

“Of course! I always enjoy answering questions from a curious mind!”

“Well,” Scorpia said. “I guess I’m just not used to thinking of Hordak as someone who has romantic interests.”

Entrapta furrowed her brow. “I don’t think there’s a particular type of person who has romantic interests. I haven’t been able to establish a pattern as to who has them and who doesn’t, beyond the fact that young children tend not to. All sorts of personalities, species, body types form all sorts of different types of relationships with others.”

“That’s true,” Scorpia said. “But how did you know it was a good idea to ask him out? How did you know he would want to?”

“I didn’t!” Entrapta said. “That’s what makes it so exciting! I had a strong hypothesis, but you never know what will happen until you start the experiment. So far, it’s going well. We’re both…” Her cheeks blushed a little. “We’ve both made a lot of mistakes, but we know that we understand each other. He’s my lab partner! If this experiment turned out to be a mistake, I know he would forgive me, and I would forgive him.”

“You seem pretty sure of yourself,” Scorpia said.

Entrapta rolled her eyes and groaned.

“Sorry,” she said. “I should- let me say it again. It is _good_ to _not_ be sure. That’s what _makes_ it _exciting._ Do you understand?”

Scorpia smiled and let out a soft laugh.

“No, I understand that,” she said. “I guess what I meant to say isn’t that you’re sure of yourself. It’s that you’re brave.”

“You gotta be brave to live life,” Entrapta said. “If I let myself be scared, I’d get nothing done!”

“I wish I could be like that,” Scorpia sighed.

“You _are_ like that! Everyone is! Everyone takes risks, every time they get up in the morning. I just take more risks than most people!”

Scorpia smiled at Entrapta, who tossed the last tiny empanada into her mouth and then set her plate on a nearby windowsill.

“Risks about relationships feel bigger and scarier than other stuff,” Scorpia said. “To me, anyway. I think it’s because… well… I don’t really like myself, and I don’t expect other people to like me.”

“That makes no sense,” Entrapta said. “Which is the nature of feelings. Feelings don’t make sense. Logically, however, I can assure you that people like you. I know for a fact that I like you. You’re one of my best friends in the world. Based on the traits I’ve observed about you, it seems impossible that most people wouldn’t like you. Almost all the people I’ve seen you interact with really enjoy your company and express that you’re a great friend and admirable person.”

“Thanks,” Scorpia said sheepishly. Entrapta’s blunt honesty was awkward when it was negative, but it was also intense when it was positive.

“No problem! Is there a particular personal problem concerning you right now that’s bringing up these insecurities?”

Scorpia blushed and ran her claw over her head.

“Yeah, actually… I kind of have romantic feelings for Perfuma? And she’s a really good friend, but I’m becoming scared to spend time with her, because I’m afraid that I’ll make her uncomfortable with my feelings.”

“People become uncomfortable because of actions, not because of feelings,” Entrapta said.

“Well, I’m afraid that I’ll act on my feelings, yeah.”

“Why would you be afraid of that? You want to initiate a romantic relationship with her, right? And from my observations, you and Perfuma would make a great couple. Not to mention, she flirts with you a lot.”

“What?” Scorpia said. This was news to her.

“You didn’t notice? She compliments you very frequently, far more than she compliments her other friends. She looks at you with the same look that Adora gives Catra, and she finds lots of excuses, often flimsy ones, to touch you or spend time with you.”

“That’s flirting?” Scorpia said.

“I know, it took me ages to figure out what flirting was, too,” Entrapta said. “I can send you my notes if you want.”

“Wow, I guess I really did flirt a lot with Catra back in the Horde,” Scorpia muttered.

“Huh, now that you mention it, I guess you did,” Entrapta said. “I didn’t notice at the time- too much cool tech to work on! But let me return to the point! You should- I believe you should- try to initiate a romantic relationship with Perfuma. It’s a great idea!”

“Do you really think that she feels the same way about me?” Scorpia asked, looking down at her claws. She didn’t really believe it. Perfuma was a beautiful, effervescent princess. And Scorpia?

Seeing Hordak be a romantic partner to someone had been weird. But Scorpia thinking of herself as someone’s romantic prospect, as someone that another woman would _want_ , was impossible.

Wasn’t it?

“I think so, yeah,” Entrapta said. “But remember: I’m never sure. That’s what makes the experiment worth doing, the fact that it’s an experiment.”

“Isn’t that really scary?”

“Precisely! It should be scary! Experiments are always scary, but you should always do them, with two exceptions. Wait, three exceptions.”

“What are the exceptions?” Scorpia asked quickly.

Entrapta sat up straight on top of Emily, assuming a lecturing position.

“Exception one,” she said. “If the experiment isn’t worth doing. Exception two, if there is a significant chance that you won’t survive the experiment, in which case you should get better safety measures. And exception three, which I really should have learned earlier… if it hurts other people.”

Scorpia let out a long, sad sigh.

“That’s the exception I’m worried about!” she said. “I’m afraid of hurting Perfuma.”

“How would you hurt her? Wait, it was a romantic relationship you were proposing, right? Not invasive surgery? I have actually mixed those two up before.”

“It’s because it’s me, Entrapta. Wouldn’t you be upset if you found out someone like me was attracted to _you?_ Wouldn’t anyone be freaked out by that?”

“I’d certainly be surprised if you were attracted to me romantically,” Entrapta said. “But only because you showed no signs of it, and our relationship functions better as a friendship, based on my data. But I wouldn’t be upset or ‘freaked out’. Why would I?”

“I…”

Scorpia looked out the window nearby, at the rocky landscape of Dryl and the bright sun.

“I don’t know,” she admitted finally. “I just assumed people found me bad and wrong. I think it might have been Shadow Weaver who told me that, or Catra, or… But Shadow Weaver’s dead, and Catra told me that she never meant any of that, and…”

“And assumptions are not very scientific,” Entrapta added.

“And Perfuma has never, ever made me feel like I’m bad or wrong or creepy. Actually, she makes me feel like I’m good and important.”

“Oh! That’s on my list of things that make a functional relationship!”

“So maybe I should just… Maybe it’s not bad to try this. Maybe it’s OK for me to want her. Maybe she even wants me.”

“ ‘Maybe’ is an excellent word,” Entrapta said. “Want some tiny calzones? My chefs are doing all sorts of filled pastries this week. Tonight we’re having soup dumplings!”

Scorpia followed Entrapta back to the kitchen, her heart considerably lighter, and tried some more tiny foods.

Scorpia took in a long, deep breath, then exhaled.

“I can do this,” she murmured to herself. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed in her new room, surrounded by pillows and plush animals, teapots and flowerpots.

She picked up her device and carefully called Perfuma, who she knew would be available because (ugh, so embarrassing) she’d memorized her schedule when Perfuma mentioned it offhand last week.

The video button rang twice before Perfuma’s face filled the screen. She was lounging against a bedframe, her hair free and her face filled with a smile.

“Scorpia!” she said excitedly. “It’s so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you, too!” Scorpia said.

“Is there a reason you called me?” Perfuma asked.

“Uh, not really? I kinda just wanted to see you.” Perfuma’s smile grew, which made Scorpia smile in turn. _I can do this._ “Are you excited for our trip to Mystacor?”

“Yes!” Perfuma said. “It’ll be so nice to see Mystacor in a better light.”

“Oh, my God,” Scorpia said. “I hadn’t even thought about… The last time you guys went to Mystacor, it was to get the failsafe, and… And I wasn’t even there! Are you sure you’re OK with going? I’m so sorry, I forgot!”

“Scorpia, hey,” Perfuma said. She leaned forward to the screen. “Hey, breathe. This was Glimmer’s idea, not yours, so you don’t need to apologize for it. And it’s a _good_ idea, too. Glimmer says Mystacor is a beautiful place, and we’re not going to go to where the failsafe was. We’re going to visit the beaches and the spa and the nice parts of the city. It’ll be so nice just to take some time off to de-stress.”

“Well, of course, I don’t need to de-stress at all,” Scorpia said. “Rebuilding a kingdom from scratch is the most stress-free activity ever.”

Perfuma laughed, way more than Scorpia’s joke merited, then said, “Seriously. I want you to feel totally safe and calm this weekend. That’s the whole point.”

“You always help me feel safe and calm,” Scorpia said, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest with the intensity of the confession.

Perfuma blushed and smiled and said, “I really hope I do. You deserve to feel safe, Scorpia.”

“So do you!” Scorpia said. “Did I mention you’re a really good friend? And you didn’t answer my question, are you sure _you’re_ OK with going to Mystacor?”

“Yes, I am. I told Glimmer, actually, I want to make good memories out of places where I had bad memories. I can’t think of a better way to make good memories than to go on a trip with my friends, with the people I… really care about.” She brushed her hair over her shoulder and looked right at Scorpia through the screen with an expression so soft that it made Scorpia melt.

“What about you?” she continued. “How are you feeling about leaving the Scorpion Kingdom for the weekend?”

“Oh, don’t remind me,” Scorpia said. “I put together the most detailed plans, down to the letter, and I have people covering all the jobs I usually do, and backups for those people, and backups for the backups. Should I have gotten backups for the backup-backups? And now I’m wondering if I made enough copies of the itinerary. I left them my number for emergencies, and I left the numbers of everyone else in the Princess Alliance, and Entrapta is coming for a presentation on the new tech, and now I’m thinking- they don’t know Entrapta! What if they don’t get along with her? I did make sure that she has someone coming with her who knows how to translate her tech-speak. Do you think that’s enough?”

Perfuma gave her a wary but loving look.

“Yes, Scorpia,” she said. “I think that’s more than enough. I met the people you work with. They are more than capable of figuring it out. You’re a good leader, which means they know what to do even when you’re not there for two whole days.”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “They got this.”

“You should focus on taking care of yourself this weekend,” Perfuma said. “I know you’re really good at taking care of everyone else in the world, but this weekend, promise me you’ll take care of yourself. OK?”

“Uh, I might need some help with that,” Scorpia said, then turned red- what if that sounded like an innuendo? This was just like that dream she had where Perfuma “helped” her “relax” by… nope, nope, wrong time to think about that! “I, I mean, I mean by that, that you know a lot about self-care, and you could give me tips. With talking.”

“I’d be happy to!” Perfuma said. She had not been completely turned off by Scorpia’s awkward stumbling over her words, which was a relief. “Actually, we should start by going to sleep. I love talking to you, but it’s important to get our rest. It’s getting kind of late. And tomorrow we’ll see each other again anyway!”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said, smiling. “Good night, then, flower.”

Perfuma blushed- she was _so_ cute, the way she smiled and blushed and her eyes twinkled like that- and said, “Good night, Scorpia.”

Scorpia hung up- if she was the first one to hang up, there was no way she would seem clingy, right? Foolproof plan.

She set her device into its charger and flicked off the lightswitch, then grabbed her scorpion plushie and nestled into her pillows. Images of Perfuma echoed against her closed eyes, and she couldn’t help a giant smile. The thought of her was intoxicating: spending time with her, seeing her smile and hearing her voice, and talking about music and plants and the future.

The thought was thrilling and terrifying, like those old ghost stories about princesses in the woods: that Perfuma might want her back. Really, really want her, not reluctantly, not accidentally, but on purpose genuinely want Scorpia.

“The ghost stories turned out to not be as scary as they sounded,” Scorpia said to herself. “Princesses turned out to actually be nice.”

Maybe this story would turn out to be nice, too.


	6. Bravery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK holy shit this chapter is so long, I'm so sorry lol... my town lost power and I spent most of yesterday handwriting half this chapter, and luckily we got power back so I typed it all up and then typed like 4000 more words. whew. I just had a LOT of ideas  
> anyway FINALLY these two lesbian babies are gonna admit their feelings!!!!!! (to each other)  
> further notes at the end to explain any weird bullshit I threw in, feel free to ask questions about anything else (or comment about how gay and cute Scorfuma is)

Scorpia was supposed to have gotten a good night’s sleep, but first she’d been up for a while imagining fun activities to do with all her friends, and then, once she’d finally fallen asleep, she’d been woken up by a collapse in the palace construction site. After a few hours helping the crew fix it up and then frantically putting together a Super Backup Construction Safety Plan, she’d been too frenzied to sleep any more, and just downed a few cups of strong coffee before heading to the meetup location in Bright Moon.

She was used to going without sleep. Back in the Horde, she rarely got more than five hours of sleep a night, and these days she regularly stayed up late to do work. But usually when she operated on no sleep, she had something intense to keep her busy- not just hanging out with friends.

“Hi, Scorpia!” Glimmer shouted when Scorpia appeared in the Bright Moon entrance.

“Hi, guys!” Scorpia shouted back. She had her bag slung over her shoulders. “How are you all?”

“We’re great,” Catra said, from where she was seated with her head in Adora’s lap. “Apparently Mystacor has some sort of statue I’m not supposed to vandalize? I can’t wait.”

“They took it _down!_ ” Glimmer said.

Scorpia looked around- it was early on a weekend morning, so no one was there but the five of them and a Bright Moon guard. Bow was sneakily taking pictures of Glimmer, who Scorpia now noticed was wearing a new outfit. Adora was running her hands through Catra’s hair and smiling lazily.

“Hey, where’s Perfuma?” Scorpia asked.

Glimmer and Adora gave each other a knowing look.

“She’s busy packing you a strap- _ow_ Adora!” Catra said.

Bow checked his tracker pad. “She’ll be here in five minutes,” he said. “Guys, do you think we packed enough sunscreen? And towels. I made sure to bring _beach_ towels, not regular towels, because they need to be big enough-”

Glimmer put a hand on Bow’s shoulder. “Hey,” she said softly. “You don’t have to take care of us. This vacation is for you, too. If something goes wrong, we can handle it.”

Bow smiled and took Glimmer’s hand. Catra pretended to throw up upon seeing this, despite the fact that she was currently holding both of Adora’s hands.

Something in Scorpia’s heart lit up seeing the two pairs- she was happy for her friends. Not in a hollow way, and not in a way where she devalued her own happiness. For a long time, seeing her friends happy had made her think that they deserved happiness- and she didn’t. Now she was beginning to feel that she deserved the same happiness she wished on her friends.

“Sorry I’m late!” shouted Perfuma, who was running into the entrance hall. Scorpia instinctively turned at the sound of her voice and grinned. She’d also put on some sort of new outfit that looked stunning on her.

Perfuma arrived at the group, a little out of breath.

“Sorry,” she said again. “Overslept. Last night one of the former clones I’ve been helping had a major panic attack. I had to help talk her down. She’s OK, but I totally lost sleep. Sorry if I yawn a lot today!”

“What are the odds?” Glimmer said. “I was up half the night reworking that new agriculture bill.”

“Oh, the one about farmers’ rights?” Perfuma asked. “I actually had an idea about seed distribution channels-”

“Hey!” Catra snapped. “No work talk. I am _not_ spending this vacation listening to Sparkles freak out about documents.”

“You’re right,” Glimmer said. “We all seriously need to rest, huh?”

“Yeah,” Scorpia chimed in. “I actually didn’t get much sleep either- construction emergency.”

“Oh, no!” Perfuma said. “Are you OK? I mean, is- uh- is the construction OK?”

“Oh, yeah, we fixed it. And I’m fine. Don’t need much sleep to function.”

“Amen,” Catra said. “We’re not prissy delicate flowers like the rest of you. Yes offense, Perfuma.” Adora gave her a look. “Fine, no offense, Perfuma.”

“None taken,” Perfuma said cheerily. “Flowers aren’t delicate, they’re strong. I take it as a compliment. Anyway, should we get going?”

“Yes!” Bow said. “Mystacor’s an hour flight away, so let’s get this show on the road!”

Glimmer had booked them into some sort of fancy hotel, saying that she loved her aunt Casta, but did _not_ want to stay with her again.

“Wow,” Scorpia said, looking around the cavernous, open-air lobby. “This place looks amazing.”

“Do you think so?” trilled a voice from behind the reception desk. Glimmer groaned.

“Hey, Aunt Casta,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“Like I’d miss an opportunity to see my favorite niece! And her friends! How long are you going to be here?”

Glimmer looked helplessly at her friends, and Catra finally said, “All weekend, but we’re actually planning on, uh, resting. Glimmer will call you if she wants to hang out.”

“Which I totally do!” Glimmer said. “Just not right now!”

“Because she has boundaries,” Catra added.

Casta smiled thinly. “Of course. Forgive me, I can be overbearing. Let me fetch the keys to your rooms.”

She disappeared behind the counter, and Scorpia, who’d been totally lost as to why Glimmer disliked whatever an aunt was, said, “Uh… so what was that?”

Glimmer sighed. “My aunt can be… passive aggressive. You don’t know her very well, but…”

“Trust me,” Bow said. “She can be difficult. Family’s tough sometimes. Glimmer _does_ love her aunt, but sometimes even when you care about someone, you need boundaries.”

“And _I_ care about Glimmer,” Catra added, “which is why I enforced those boundaries. ‘Cause I’m the only one here who’s not a giant pushover.”

“Awww, you care about me?” Glimmer said, scrunching up her face to look extra cute.

“Whatever, Sparkles,” Catra said, but she was smiling.

Casta emerged with two sets of keys.

“Looks like… Glimmer, this is you and Bow’s, and Adora, this one’s for you and Catra,” she said, handing them over. “I’ll just get out of your hair then, since I’m not wanted-”

“Wait,” Perfuma said. “What about Scorpia?”

“And Perfuma?” Scorpia added.

“Oh, right!” Casta said. “Hey, Tally!”

Another woman popped her head out from the back room. “Yes?”

“Where are the keys for the third room my niece booked?”

“Hmm?” Tally said. “There’s a third room? It’s peak season, we’re sort of booked.”

“ _Seriously?_ ” Glimmer said. “I specifically booked three rooms!”

“Wait, so we’re sharing a room?” Scorpia said, looking at Perfuma, who blushed, making Scorpia’s insides melt.

“Well, you’ll have to,” Tally said. “A lot of our rooms are booked for the weekend… One second… Let me check the spreadsheets…”

She disappeared into the back room again, and Glimmer said, “Guys, I’m so sorry about this.”

“It’s totally OK!” Perfuma said. “We can hang out here in the lobby; it looks comfortable. You all go ahead and settle into your rooms.”

“If you’re sure…” Glimmer said.

“Yeah, I’m good staying here!” Scorpia said. “This lobby is giving me some ideas for the new palace design, actually.”

The other four headed up to their rooms, leaving Scorpia alone with Perfuma.

“You doing OK?” Perfuma asked. “I know you ended up not getting much sleep after all.”

“Oh, I can handle it,” Scorpia said. “I never got much sleep back in the old days. The Horde had terrible food, but amazing energy drinks. I just lived on those.”

To Scorpia’s surprise, Perfuma’s eyes widened in pity.

“Scorpia,” she said. “You deserve to get all the rest you need.”

Before Scorpia could respond, Casta piped up, “I heard you admiring the architecture here in the lobby!”

“Yeah, it’s really nice,” Scorpia said.

“Would you like a tour? I can tell you all about the different inspirations taken from all the Etherian kingdoms. For example, the turquoise mosaic tiles, that’s straight from Salineas.”

“Oh, let me guess the next one!” Scorpia said, taking Casta aback. She glanced around the room. “Ooh, the floral stonework on the pillars- you’d think that’s from Plumeria, but it’s actually very reminiscent of Bright Moon style.”

Perfuma’s eyes widened again, this time looking impressed.

“You certainly know your architectural styles,” Casta said.

“Eh, not really. My friend Ruster’s been doing all the murals for our buildings, and they love art history. And I love to hear them talk about it!”

“Well, then you’ll love this tour!” Casta said. “Unless you’d rather not spend time with me, like Glimmer.”

Scorpia and Perfuma looked at each other warily, then looked back at Casta, both overcome by their need to be polite.

“We’d love a tour,” Perfuma finally said.

“Wonderful! Well, let’s start with my favorite, the structural elements!”

Scorpia _did_ enjoy hearing about art history, but Casta talked way too fast and unlike when Entrapta infodumped at the speed of light, she refused to stop for questions. Scorpia found herself spending much of the tour drifting off, feeling tired despite herself. The coffees she’d had that morning weren’t nearly as effective as the energy drinks back in the Horde. And more importantly, Perfuma’s advice about self-care kept echoing in her head.

She looked over at Perfuma, who to her surprise had already been looking back at her. She smiled and rolled her eyes in the direction of Casta, who was currently lecturing on the stained-glass sculptures in the center of the room.

“And watch this,” she was saying. “If you stand in _just_ the right spot- you, Perfuma, try it.”

“Okay,” Perfuma said amiably, and stood in the spot Casta had pointed out, then gasped. The multicolored glass sent a rainbow beam in Perfuma’s direction, scanning over her body and then illuminating her in a dazzling prism of colors that only served to bring out everything that was already beautiful about her. Her hair floated like clouds, encircled in lilac and mint, and her skin glowed golden-bronze. Scorpia realized she was gaping at her friend and closed her mouth, intent on not actually drooling over how beautiful Perfuma was.

“It’s my invention,” Casta said cheerily, seemingly not noticing Scorpia’s attack of gay emotions. “Isn’t it great?”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said softly.

“OK, sorry for the delay,” called Tally from behind the counter, “but your room _is_ ready. It’s not _right_ next to your friends but it’s down the hall. Is that OK?”

“Perfect!” Perfuma said.

She and Scorpia headed over and took the keys.

“Thanks for the tour!” Scorpia shouted, as they rushed over to the elevators.

Once inside the elevator, Perfuma released a giant breath.

“Oh my God that was so boring,” she said. Then she gasped and covered her mouth. “I mean-! I don’t want to be mean, I just…” She stared off to the side shyly. ‘I honestly just wanted to spend time with _you._ ”

The desire to take Perfuma in her arms flooded Scorpia’s brain, and she swatted the thoughts away quickly.

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “The room _was_ very nice, but the tour was sort of boring.” She suddenly yawned. “It definitely didn’t help me stay awake.”

“Well, luckily we’re heading to a room with comfy beds; you can take a nap,” Perfuma said.

“No, I don’t want to sleep,” Scorpia said, though she yawned again. “I don’t want to sleep when we could be hanging out instead!”

Perfuma smiled. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll sleep too. I’m so exhausted.”

“Well…” Scorpia started. She didn’t want to show physical weakness, which now that she thought about it was a very Horde-lifestyle way of thinking. And Perfuma was the exact opposite of the Horde: warm, loving, forgiving. And the thought of getting into a soft bed and taking a warm nap was so tempting… “Yeah, I really should sleep.”

They emerged on the fifth floor, where huge windows looked out on the soft cloud beaches. Scorpia had loved jumping through the clouds to enter Mystacor, so she was excited to visit the cloud beach.

Perfuma found their room and unlocked the door. The room was lovely, toned with burgundies, pinks, and violets, but there only seemed to be one bed.

“You take it,” Scorpia said immediately. “I’m good with sleeping on the floor. Or that chair.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Perfuma said. “That bed is definitely big enough for both of us.”

Scorpia swallowed.

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” she said.

“I won’t be,” Perfuma insisted.

“Are you sure?”

“ _Yes,_ ” Perfuma said. “Come on, we’re both tired. If you’re not comfortable we can always figure something out.”

Scorpia put down her bag at the foot of the bed and took off her shoes, heart thundering in her chest. This was way too intimate.

“Are you _sure_ you’re comfortable sharing a bed?” she asked again, before seating herself on the very edge of the bed.

“Yeah, I am,” Perfuma said carefully, as she took out her headband and laid down on the bed. “Why do you keep asking? Are- are you uncomfortable? I can leave-”

“No!” Scorpia said, way too quickly. “I mean, I…”

She sighed.

“It’s a long story. Long story short, I don’t like to… be too close to other people… without their consent. You know?”

“That’s normal,” Perfuma said. “But I am consenting. I’m telling you I’m comfortable. Is that not enough?”

Scorpia’s heart nearly broke seeing Perfuma’s face.

“You’re not doing anything wrong,” she said. “I just have trouble believing… I don’t know. I mean, we didn’t really have the concept of consent in the Horde. Like, we knew about sexual consent, we learned about it in sex ed class-” Perfuma’s eyebrows quirked, but she said nothing. “-but we never learned about other kinds. It was just assumed we said yes to everything, didn’t matter what we wanted. And I’m scared…”

She took a long breath. She really didn’t want to cry.

“Go on,” Perfuma said softly.

Scorpia let out her breath.

“I’m scared,” she said, “because I never know when to stop. I just want to give everyone hugs and like, I never even used to ask first. And I know that Catra at least resented me for it. But she never learned how to say no, either, and I never learned how to _hear_ no, and the first time I ever heard the concept of asking someone what they want first was from Glimmer, and I just don’t want to miss any signs that I’m making someone uncomfortable. Especially someone I care about. And you’re so nice to me, you might just be lying to spare my feelings. I don’t want that.”

Scorpia released another breath, then gathered up her knees in her claws, huddled against the bedframe. She felt the bed shift and looked up at Perfuma, who was kneeling next to her. Her eyes were soft, not with pity but with compassion.

“Scorpia,” she said. “You’re a good person. It is _good_ of you to care so much about other people’s safety and comfort. I’m so sorry that you had that experience growing up. But that experience doesn’t make you a bad person. You care so much about other people, and now that you know how to ask for consent, you do it. And when people say no, you respect that, right?”

“Of course,” Scorpia said quietly.

“Then you don’t need to worry. And I promise you, if you ever do something I don’t like, I’ll tell you right away. Can you trust that I’ll do that?”

“Of course I trust you.”

“Good. Then _trust_ that I am comfortable here, because I’m about to hug you if that’s OK.”

Scorpia smiled and unfolded her arms.

“Yes, that’s OK,” she said, and Perfuma rushed forward and threw her arms around Scorpia. Tentatively, Scorpia brought her claws up to rest against Perfuma’s back, breathing in her delicate scent, her soft hair, and Scorpia’s whole body relaxed.

The emotional talk had made her even more tired, and she tried to suppress a yawn. It dawned on her that Perfuma had clung to her a lot longer than most friends would.

“Um, you falling asleep there, sunflower?” she asked.

“Hmm?” Perfuma asked. She lifted her head and yawned. “Yeah, I guess I am… Come on, let’s take that nap…”

She settled against the pillows, quite close to Scorpia despite the fact that there was plenty of room on the bed. Scorpia reined in her urge to ask Perfuma another hundred times if that was OK, and her urge to leap on the floor and frantically apologize. She released a slow breath and just let herself enjoy the closeness. Carefully, she adjusted herself until she was lying down against the soft pastel pillows. Perfuma let out a small happy sound and curled closer against Scorpia’s chest, murmuring, “This OK?”

“Y-yeah,” Scorpia said, and stretched one claw over the pillows, the other coming to rest near Perfuma’s waist.

“Good,” Perfuma sighed, her eyes closed, and Scorpia gazed down at her, unable to stop smiling.

Her exhaustion overtook her soon, and her eyes drifted shut, the warmth of Perfuma’s presence slowly lulling her to sleep.

When Perfuma woke up, Scorpia was still fast asleep, her claw gently digging into Perfuma’s side.

Reluctantly, she got up, wanting Scorpia to get as much rest as she needed. She checked the time: 2 in the afternoon. She had a bunch of message on her phone:

**11:01 Catra:** have fun with scorpia ;) :P

 **11:15 Bow:** you ok?

 **11:16 Bow:** rest as much as you need, we’re at the beach tho!

 **12:02 Glimmer:** yall want lunch or no?

 **12:45 Catra:** are you two done fucking yet omg

 **1:15 Adora:** Hey, Perfuma. We’re having dinner at 7 pm at a restaurant called Mystacuisine on the beach. I sent you a link to their website and address. Can’t wait to see you then!

 **1:30 Bow:** tell me you didn’t get eaten by sharks pls!!!

 **1:45 Glimmer:** can u PLEASE tell bow there’s no sharks here

Perfuma smiled and quickly messaged everyone back, hoping she hadn’t worried Bow too much.

Her stomach rumbled a little- they’d slept through lunchtime, and all she’d eaten that day was a small peanut butter sandwich Bow had given her on the ride over. She thought about heading out to grab some food, but she didn’t want to leave Scorpia alone. She looked so calm, asleep on the bed, her muscles relaxed for once, her face smooth and soft. Perfuma loved Scorpia’s beautiful smile, but she knew how exhausting it could be to be the positive one, especially when surrounded by sadness. It was good to see her not constantly _on,_ but just at peace.

She thought of how tentative and scared Scorpia had been before they’d fallen asleep. Glimmer and Adora were right- Scorpia was nervous. Way too nervous to be able to initiate a relationship. But it seemed like she wanted that intimacy- she was just scared of it. Perfuma couldn’t make that decision for her, but she could make intimacy feel safer and less scary for Scorpia.

There was a light knock on the door, which caused Scorpia to stir.

“Huh?” she said, lifting her head. “Something happening?”

“Just a knock at the door,” Perfuma said, getting up from the chair in the corner. “I’ll get it.”

“What time is it?” Scorpia asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Just past 2,” Perfuma said, opening the door. “Oh, hey, Bow!”

“Hey, Perfuma,” he said. His hair and skin were dripping water, and he’d changed into new clothes. “We spent all morning at the pool hanging out, and Glimmer set up a fun movie to watch and me and Adora raided the convenience store and got a billion snacks.”

“Snacks?” Scorpia said, now fully awake and leaning over to see the door. “Hi, Bow! Can we join you?”

“Yeah, I came over to invite you. Unless you uh…” He glanced at the bed and turned a bit sheepish. “…need more alone time?”

Oh my God, had _everyone_ just assumed she and Scorpia were having sex all morning? Her friends seriously thought Perfuma was more suave than she actually was.

“No, we’d be glad to join you!” Perfuma said. “I’m starving, actually.”

“Same,” Scorpia said.

Perfuma grabbed her purse and she and Scorpia followed Bow down the hall to his and Glimmer’s room, which was much bigger than Perfuma and Scorpia’s room and was currently filled with pillows that had been arranged to create comfy theatre seats.

“Perfuma! Scorpia! You’re here!” Adora shouted. She tossed over a giant bag of popcorn, which Scorpia caught deftly in her pincers without breaking it. “We have so many snacks!”

“Seriously, thanks for coming, or Adora here would eat all of them and get a stomachache,” Catra said. She was lounging on a giant nest of pillows and occasionally poking Adora’s shoulder with her foot.

“And you would nurse her lovingly back to health, because you’re a giant softie,” Glimmer teased. She was sprawled on the giant bed, remote pointed at the wall, where a screen projected the title “MERMYSTERIES 7: SALINEAS DRIFT”.

Perfuma squealed. “Ohhh, I love this one! It’s so cheesy and fun!”

“I’ve never seen Mermysteries,” Scorpia confessed. “Are they good?”

“They’re _so_ good,” Perfuma said. She made her way to one of the cushioned seats. “They’re just, like, mindless fun with a dramatic backdrop. I love them.”

“Mindless fun?” Catra scoffed. “Those books are about serious plotting and strategic genius.”

“Yeah, the books are,” Perfuma said, “but the movies are basically just dorky adventures with super intense music. And gorgeous femme fatales.”

“Oh, so that’s why you like them,” Catra said, grinning. She glanced over at Scorpia, who was still standing by the door holding the popcorn bag, and said, “Hey, Scorpia, sit down. There’s a spot next to Perfuma.”

“Oh, OK, sure,” Scorpia said, and walked over to sit next to Perfuma. She set the bag of popcorn down between them and sat down a little stiffly, clearly trying to not touch anyone else.

“Let’s get this movie started!” Glimmer exclaimed. “Bow, get _over_ here, I wanna cuddle.”

Bow smiled and went to sprawl on the bed next to Glimmer. Glimmer pointed her remote at the lights to turn them off, then to the screen to start the movie. A ritzy soundtrack began and a speedboat started racing towards the camera as the narrator explained way too much about the backstory.

Perfuma glanced at Scorpia, who was still holding herself rigid and looking directly at the screen, and she leaned over to whisper in Scorpia’s ear.

“Hey, you can relax,” she whispered. “You can sit comfortably.”

Scorpia’s face warmed, and she set her claw down from where she’d been holding it in her lap to rest next to Perfuma. Slowly, she leaned back against the pillows and let her shoulders fall.

Perfuma, still hungry, opened the bag of popcorn and started having some. Scorpia reached over and took a scoop in her claw to eat as well.

Tentatively, Perfuma scooted slightly closer to Scorpia, so their shoulders were touching, and placed her hand over Scorpia’s claw. Scorpia looked over at her, eyes wide, and Perfuma gave her a questioning look- _is this OK?_ Scorpia nodded, then smiled, and she leaned her head closer to Perfuma’s and let out a nearly imperceptible sigh.

From across the room, Perfuma saw Adora give her a thumbs-up and grin.

Perfuma smiled, the feel of Scorpia’s smooth claw cooling against her skin, and the feel of her shoulder warm against her own. She let herself lean back and enjoy the ridiculous movie with her friends.

Catra was cackling with laughter over something Glimmer had said during dinner, and she finally said, “Glimmer, holy shit! I keep forgetting you’re actually fucking hilarious!”

“Hey, we’re all hilarious,” Perfuma said, grabbing another roll from the table’s bread basket.

“No, you are not,” Catra said. “Perfuma, you are a giant hippie. Scorpia, you’re too nice to be funny. Adora, you’re a dumbass. Bow, you’re _also_ too nice to be funny. Glimmer’s the only one who can make _me_ laugh.”

“Excuse me, I distinctly remember you crying from laughter at my Shadow Weaver impression when we were six,” Adora said.

“Yeah, because I was _six._ ”

“Wait,” Scorpia said. “Didn’t you laugh at me that time I tripped over Entrapta’s notes?”

“That was me being an asshole,” Catra said, “not you being funny.”

“No, I tripped on purpose because I knew it’d make you laugh,” Scorpia said, smiling. Catra smiled back, and something in Scorpia’s chest reconnected. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed just being Catra’s friend.

“Well,” Catra said, “that’s just another example of you being too nice, then.”

“That’s it,” Bow said. “I’m making it my mission to make you laugh. One day, Catra. You will laugh at me.”

“I laugh at you all the time,” Catra said. “I laughed at you yesterday when you were trying to make that cake thing for Glimmer and it was a disaster.”

“Aww, you were trying to make a cake for me?” Glimmer said, looking at Bow tenderly.

“No, it was supposed to be an éclair, and it went terribly,” Bow said, covering his face with his hands.

A sudden wind came rustling over their beachside table, sending the napkins fluttering and Catra and Bow scrambling to grab them. Scorpia was distracted by Perfuma’s hair flying around her face- how did she get her hair to look so picturesque all the time? When Scorpia had been little, before she decided to start cutting her hair short, her hair would always get in the way and she hated how it looked. On Perfuma, though, long hair worked.

Perfuma smiled over at Scorpia, a perfect image of beauty, and Scorpia wanted to wrap up the moment to carry around later.

“Hey,” Glimmer said, “you two. Do you want dessert or not?”

Scorpia and Perfuma turned back to face the group.

“Uh, actually, I’m so full,” Scorpia said. “I was so hungry when we came here that I got all those different pasta things and now I definitely can’t have dessert.”

“Oh, same here,” Perfuma said.

“Well, that settles it, we are not getting dessert,” Glimmer said. “I’ll get the bill.”

There was a quick argument where everyone offered to pay before Glimmer shouted, “I am _literally a queen! I am paying!_ ”

“Actually, aren’t I technically a queen?” Scorpia asked.

“If I annoy a queen half to death, don’t I have the right to pay for a queen’s dinner?” Catra asked.

“I’m She Ra,” Adora chipped in.

“I’m your boyfriend,” Bow added. “I should pay.”

“Ex _cuse_ me, are you suggesting that women have to _let_ their boyfriends pay?” Glimmer asked indignantly.

“No, no!” Bow said quickly. “I just like giving you things to make you happy!”

“Well, _I_ like making _all_ my friends happy!”

Perfuma was laughing, and Scorpia said, “You know what, Glimmer, if it makes you really happy to pay for dinner, I think we should let you. That’s what friends do!”

“Defeated by the power of Scorpia being too nice,” Catra said, slumping down on her chair in a mimicry of being stabbed. Adora rolled her eyes.

Glimmer finally paid for dinner and then stretched her arms and yawned. “Is anyone else ready to go to sleep?”

“I’m at least ready to curl up in bed and read,” Bow said.

“I’m ready to wrestle Catra into a soft blanket,” Adora said, ruffling Catra’s hair.

“Yeah, I’m ready to annoy Adora about a blanket,” Catra said, and ruffled Adora’s hair back.

“Well, we both took a nap, so I’m ready to stay up and do whatever,” Perfuma said. “Maybe take a walk on the beach? It looks so nice in the moonlight!”

“Yes- you two- Scorpia and Perfuma- walk on the beach!” Adora said, looking at Glimmer. Scorpia wasn’t sure, but they almost looked like they were plotting something.

“That’ll be so nice,” Glimmer said. “I guess we’d better head upstairs and let you two get to it.”

They all got up from the table and the other four started heading for the hotel when Catra said, “Hey, Scorpia, can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Uh, sure,” Scorpia said. “I’ll join you soon, Perfuma?”

“No problem,” Perfuma said. “I’ll go wait next to the beach entrance.”

She headed off, and Scorpia said, “What is it, wildcat?”

Catra scratched her head.

“Listen,” she said. “I just wanted to tell you that I am _genuinely_ happy for you and Perfuma.”

“What about me and Perfuma?” Scorpia asked.

“Well, I mean, did she ask you out yet?”

“ _What?_ ” Scorpia said, her heart leaping into her throat.

“Oh, I guess not,” Catra said. “Uh… well, she definitely wants to.”

“What?” Scorpia asked again. She’d thought about the possibility of Perfuma liking her, quite a bit actually, but hearing it like that was overwhelming. “Wait, why do you think so?”

Catra gave her a wary look. “Because she’s gay as fuck for you, Scorpia. Have you seen how she looks at you? It’s embarrassing. I mean, I don’t have a leg to stand on, I guess, I look like an idiot when I’m with Adora or whatever- but like. I mean, you like her too, right?”

Scorpia blushed, and looked back at Perfuma, who waved and smiled.

“Yeah,” she said. “I really do.”

Catra smiled, a small but warm smile, and then leapt on Scorpia to give her a hug. Scorpia patted her back gently.

“You should go for it,” Catra said, and stepped back to look in Scorpia’s eyes. “I… I know I was a shit girlfriend…”

“Hey, you already apologized for that,” Scorpia said. “We’re friends, remember?”

“I _know_ , but like. I probably made you feel really shitty about the whole romance thing, and you didn’t deserve that. You deserve someone who’s good to you, and I’m pretty sure Flower Girl over there will be really good to you. And if she isn’t,” Catra pounded her fist into her hand, “well, I’ll make sure she is.”

Scorpia laughed.

“Seriously,” Catra said softly. “I want you to be happy. You should go get what makes you happy. If that’s her, then you should let her know.”

“Aww, Catra,” Scorpia said, her eyes beginning to well up.

“No, don’t cry on me!” Catra said. “I mean, do what you want… Well, uh, that’s what I wanted to say. I guess I’ll go.”

“Hey,” Scorpia said. “You know I’m happy for you and Adora too, right?”

Catra smiled.

“Thanks, Scorpia,” she said, and then headed off to join the others.

Scorpia turned and walked over to Perfuma, who was waiting by the ramp that led down into the soft silvery-white sand of the beach. Her dress was periwinkle and silver, and it shone a little in the moonlight. Scorpia didn’t usually notice details of outfits, but Perfuma clearly put so much effort into what she wore, and she looked good in everything.

“Hey, flower,” she said, when she caught up with her. “Come on, I’m excited to see the cloud water!”

Perfuma smiled and they started walking down to the beach. The sand was incredibly soft and fluffy, and unlike the sand Scorpia’d dealt with in the Crimson Waste, it didn’t dig its grains into her shoes and skin.

“Should we take our shoes off?” she asked. “The sand is so soft, it’ll be nice to be barefoot!”

“That’s a good idea,” Perfuma said, and they both removed their shoes and deposited them at the magical lockers at the edge of the ramp.

The night breeze off the waves was warm, and the moon was full. Perfuma was glowing in the moonlight, and Scorpia’s heart was glowing too, looking at her, while they strolled along the edge of the water. The lilac clouds rolled in and sent a mist of rainy foam over their toes, then receded, leaving just the pillowy-soft sand.

Perfuma brushed her hair behind an ear and said, “How are you liking Mystacor so far?”

“It’s _so_ nice,” Scorpia said. “I mean, all I’ve really seen is our room and Glimmer and Bow’s room, and this beach, but all of those were great!”

“Tomorrow we’ll do more stuff,” Perfuma said. “I heard there are magical gardens.”

“Really?” Scorpia asked. “What are those like?”

She hoped Perfuma would tell her about gardens- she loved hearing Perfuma talk about plants. She loved to hear anyone talk about their favorite thing- Ruster and their artwork, Sea Hawk and burning ships, Frosta going on about how to punch people with ice. It was what had drawn her to Catra- the ferocity with which she discussed her passions. With Perfuma, though, every word of her passionate speeches was imbued with sunlight, with gentleness, with an empathetic love that listened before it spoke.

“I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out!” Perfuma said. “I mean, obviously I’ve seen gardens before, but I’m the only person I know who has serious plant magic. It’ll be cool to see what it looks like in action, plant magic done by actual sorcerers.”

“Your plant magic is the best, though,” Scorpia said. “Because you care about the plants so much.”

“I do care about the plants,” Perfuma said. Her eyebrows suddenly raised, and she knelt by the edge of the water. Scorpia knelt next to her and watched as Perfuma closed her eyes and dipped her hands into the purple clouds.

Slowly, water lilies floated upwards, making a circle of white flowers and green pads.

“Whoa!” Scorpia said. “You made those?”

Perfuma opened her eyes.

“I didn’t,” she said. “Everywhere in the universe, there’s potential for life to bloom. This is the life that has the potential to bloom here. I know these are just clouds, but clouds are water, and over the years, this cloudy water has developed an ecosystem. All I did was hear the ecosystem sing to me, and I asked it to sing a little louder.”

She looked at Scorpia and smiled, then sat back on the beach. Scorpia sat too, still looking at Perfuma. The sand was warm and comfortable.

“You really think there’s potential for life everywhere?” Scorpia asked.

Perfuma nodded. “I do. I’ve never been somewhere that didn’t sing to me. I remember in the Crimson Waste, I was so annoyed at the cacti, because I never connected to them. But Bow talked to me and reminded me to listen. And I did, and the cacti were stronger and more beautiful than I ever imagined.”

She reached a hand over and took Scorpia’s claw. Scorpia wanted to kiss her, to tell her how beautiful and good she was, to confess her feelings.

The voices of her friends echoed in her head:

 _Be brave,_ said Sea Hawk.

 _Experiments are scary, but you should do them,_ said Entrapta.

 _You should go get what makes you happy,_ said Catra.

She took a deep breath.

“Perfuma,” she said, at the same moment that Perfuma said, “Scorpia.”

They both laughed and Perfuma said, “You go first.”

“OK,” Scorpia said, and took another breath. “Well, I… Uh, let me know if this makes you uncomfortable…”

“I promised I would tell you if I didn’t like something, remember?”

“Right,” Scorpia said. “Well, I wanted to ask you… to tell you… I…” The words came out in a rush. “I really like you and maybe we can be girlfriends and I like you and I said that already and do you want to go out with me?”

She winced, closing her eyes, praying that that hadn’t come out as terrible as it sounded in her head, and then she felt Perfuma’s hand on her shoulder. She slowly opened her eyes to see Perfuma’s face, blushing pink and grinning, eyes sparkling.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I really, really want to go out with you, Scorpia.”

“Really?” Scorpia asked, relief and excitement flooding her at once.

“Yes, really. Aaahh!” Perfuma squealed, and threw her arms around Scorpia. Scorpia hugged her back, trying and failing not to hold her too tight.

“Wait, what were you going to tell me?” Scorpia asked, and Perfuma laughed, leaning back from the hug.

“I was going to ask _you_ out,” she said.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously! I guess we had the same idea, huh?”

“Great minds do think alike,” Scorpia said. Her heart was beating incredibly fast but for once, it wasn’t out of fear or disbelieving surprise, it was just out of excitement.

They both looked out on the rushing waves, both grinning uncontrollably, and then Perfuma said, “Hey, Scorpia.”

“Yeah?” Scorpia asked, looking at her.

She smiled shyly. “Uh, is it OK if I kiss you?”

Scorpia’s mind shorted out, and she closed her eyes to clear her head, then opened them to look at Perfuma, who was waiting patiently.

“Oh- I- I didn’t answer, did I?” she said. “It- I-”

“We don’t have to, if you’re not ready,” Perfuma said.

Scorpia took a deep breath, realizing she probably didn’t look attractive at all right now, a total mess, not at all a girl someone would want to kiss- wait, no, Perfuma had _asked_ to kiss her, which meant she wanted to kiss her. Right?

“Do you want to?” she asked quietly.

“That’s why I asked,” Perfuma said, leaning closer. “Do _you_ want to?”

“Yes,” Scorpia said, her voice almost aching with how much she wanted to, and she leaned closer too, and then Perfuma reached up and softly cupped Scorpia’s cheek and pressed her lips to Scorpia’s.

She broke away after a moment and leaned her forehead against Scorpia’s. The kiss had only lasted a second or two, but both of them were breathing heavily, and then they looked into each other’s eyes and laughed.

It was the best kiss Scorpia had ever had, which wasn’t saying much to be fair, but it was still the best one.

She leaned in again, more confident this time, and kissed Perfuma, just a bit harder, and Perfuma let out a small satisfied noise and wrapped her arms around Scorpia’s neck and pulled her closer. A warm fuzzy feeling lifted throughout Scorpia and filled up her stomach and chest and head like the golden glow that had enveloped Etheria a few months before.

They broke apart to breathe, and Perfuma murmured, “I really wanted to do that.”

“Me too,” Scorpia said, and Perfuma leant back in, gently biting Scorpia’s lip, which was unfairly hot, and Scorpia brought her arms up against Perfuma’s waist, desperately wanting to hold her closer.

“This OK?” she breathed out between kisses, and Perfuma laughed and breathed back, “ _Yes,_ oh my God, everything you do is OK,” and pushed herself closer to Scorpia’s chest, kissing her deeper. Scorpia’s thoughts were trying to enter her brain and tell her that she was probably a terrible kisser and what were her teeth doing and what were her claws doing, but her brain was too busy being filled with a haze of _Perfuma’s mouth_ and _Perfuma is so warm_ and _Perfuma_.

Perfuma finally broke away from Scorpia’s mouth, her eyes still closed, looking like she’d just gone a day without water and then been able to drink her fill. The sight of her like that was mesmerizing.

She finally opened her eyes and looked into Scorpia’s.

“Was that okay?” Scorpia asked, her brain finally working enough to get her insecurities up and running again.

Perfuma let out a small laugh, still a little out of breath. She placed her hands on Scorpia’s chest.

“That was so good,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for so long.”

“You have?” Scorpia asked, still not fully believing that this entire night was happening.

“You didn’t notice?” Perfuma asked. “I thought I was so embarrassingly obvious. I’m always so obvious around really hot women.”

Scorpia turned bright red and said, “You- you think I’m hot?”

Perfuma turned red too and said, “I mean… yeah.” Her eyes scanned over Scorpia’s shoulders and chest, and Scorpia suddenly realized that this was far from the first time Perfuma had done that. Had Perfuma thought that Scorpia was hot _this entire time?_

“Man, I am _not_ as good at picking up hints as I thought,” Scorpia said.

“Well, I’m glad you know now,” Perfuma said. “You are…” She took a breath. “ _So_ gorgeous.”

“You’re gorgeous too,” Scorpia said, and she finally let herself brush a closed pincer through Perfuma’s hair, which was just as soft as it looked. “Sorry- is it OK for me to touch your hair?”

“Of course it’s OK,” Perfuma said.

“I just don’t want to accidentally mess it up with my claws,” Scorpia said.

“I trust you,” Perfuma said. “Besides, I, uh, I researched a bit into scorpion claws, and I think they’re pretty safe.”

“You researched scorpion claws?” Scorpia asked. “Why- are there more scorpions in Plumeria? You can send them over, I’d be happy to house them!”

“Um, uh, there aren’t,” Perfuma said. “That I know of, anyway. Uh, I just researched them because, you know, in case we ever… I just wanted to know safe ways for us to… hold hands,” she said finally. “And… anything else.”

“Oh, scorpions can hold hands,” Scorpia said. “Unless it’s totally on purpose, my pincers won’t snap shut- they don’t do that by accident. So you can touch anywhere on my claws and it’s fine. I mean- if you want to!”

“I mean,” Perfuma said. “Does it feel nice if I do?”

“It’s nice to hold your hand, yeah.”

Perfuma smiled and placed her hand in Scorpia’s claw, running her fingers gently over the grooves, and then leaned her head against Scorpia’s shoulder.

“This night is so nice,” she said. “I mean, the weather is beautiful, _you’re_ beautiful, the moon is so nice.”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “I really like this whole having-a-moon-and-stars business. It makes every night like an awesome painting over our heads.”

“Exactly,” Perfuma said. “Or like a fantastic concert with a million instruments. Oh- which reminds me- are you still doing that music festival?”

“Oh, yeah,” Scorpia said. “We’re hoping to do it eventually. There are so many things going on in the Scorpion Kingdom that some of my ideas started falling by the wayside, but ever since the other kingdoms started sending help, it’s been getting a lot easier. I was thinking of having the music festival in the fall. Like a harvest festival.”

“Oh, I love harvest season,” Perfuma said. “I’ll bring pumpkins and apples and pies.”

“I’ve never had pumpkins! What are they?”

“You’ll love them. They’re big and orange and sweet, and you can use them for all sorts of things.”

They kept talking, about pumpkins and music and the waves rolling in from the cloudy sea. Eventually they got up and kept walking, and Scorpia told Perfuma about how Sea Hawk had taught her tons of songs about the ocean, to which Perfuma responded by begging her to sing one. Scorpia couldn’t say no to Perfuma’s cute face, so she started singing, tentatively at first and then more strongly when Perfuma began dancing around over the beach. They started getting closer to a less secluded part of the beach, where a few groups of people were hanging out, holding bonfires and playing volleyball, and Scorpia asked if she could try some of the gooey sweet thing they were roasting on the fire, and she and Perfuma shared a stick covered in the things (called marshmallows).

Scorpia’s whole mind was buzzing with excitement, and she and Perfuma tired out faster than they’d thought they would. It was a little past midnight when they went back to the magic lockers to retrieve their shoes and made their way back to the hotel and into their room.

“Uh- I’m gonna change into my pajamas,” Scorpia said, then grabbed her bag and darted into the bathroom. Her chest filled with anxiety, and she realized that she and Perfuma were about to _sleep together_. In the _same bed._ Well, they’d slept together earlier that day, but that was before they’d…

Had all that really happened? Had Perfuma really agreed to go out with her? Had they really had that fantastic makeout session on the beach?

She brushed her teeth and changed into her pajamas, washed her face and tried to calm herself down. Then she walked out of the bathroom.

Perfuma had changed into a frilly baby-pink nightgown, and had brushed her teeth in the main room’s sink, as well as put on what appeared to be a whole case of lotions on her arms, legs, and face. She was just getting under the blankets.

“Hey,” she said, upon seeing Scorpia’s nervous face. “Are you OK with sleeping here? I promise we don’t have to do anything but sleep.” She yawned. “I’m too tired anyway.”

“Can we cuddle?” Scorpia asked.

Perfuma grinned. “We _absolutely_ can cuddle. Get in here.”

Scorpia walked over and got under the blankets next to Perfuma, who scooted over and tucked her head against Scorpia’s neck.

“Just so you know,” she said, “I’m really happy we’re together. I’d love to be your girlfriend, like, officially. Only if that’s OK.”

Scorpia’s eyes filled with tears.

“Scorpia?” Perfuma asked, pulling back. “What’s wrong?”

“You want to be my girlfriend?” she asked. “I… I want that, too. I’m sorry for crying, it’s just so nice.”

Perfuma smiled and leaned in to kiss Scorpia softly.

“You’re nice,” she murmured. “You don’t have to apologize. I get it, sometimes emotions just overflow and come out in the form of tears. You’re safe with me.”

“How are you so nice?” Scorpia said. “You’re the nicest girlfriend ever.”

Perfuma blushed. “Actually, _you’re_ the nicest girlfriend ever.”

“Well, maybe it’s a tie,” Scorpia said, and she leaned her head back against the pillows. Perfuma nestled herself back into the crook between Scorpia’s neck and shoulder, and Scorpia reached her claw all the way over to the night table to press the lights off. She brought her other claw to wrap around Perfuma, who placed her hand over Scorpia’s chest and whispered, “Good night, Scorpia.”

“Night, flower,” Scorpia said.

It was a while before she relaxed from the thrill of the whole evening, but by the time she felt Perfuma’s even breathing against her neck, she was already herself drifting off into a tranquil sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some notes:  
> a) I have nothing in particular against Casta, I just remember that she and Glimmer had a somewhat strained relationship, and I also wanted a reason to show that Scorpia and Perfuma are way too polite (and an excuse to make them sleepy)  
> b) Catra's a little shit and an angel  
> c) I have no idea if I spelled the name of Mermista's kingdom right  
> d) I'll explain more about "Horde sex ed classes" in later chapters  
> e) in this fic Scorpia is a butch who knows nothing about fashion but she loves and supports Perfuma's femme ways  
> f) I hate sand so I made Mystacor's sand be soft as hell and incapable of getting fucking everywhere  
> g) probably should have warned that there'll be eventual smut in this fic, not in this chapter obviously, but eventually. so be ready for that


	7. Happiness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some disclaimers:  
> 1) I got sucked into She Ra discourse blogs like the idiot that I am, so I just wanted to say that I Know All The Characters Have Flaws, And That's What Makes Them Characters, But This Is A Fluff Fic So Let Me Live  
> 2) Additionally, I did say Scorpia was a butch in the notes of the last chapter, but I'd like to amend that and say that she's a tacky lesbian who likes weird styles and will dress butch, femme, or anything else depending on her mood.   
> 3) to be clear, I don't give a shit about discourse, but I have anxiety so I fear discoursers too much  
> 4) Yes, the title of the chapter is "happiness", but that doesn't mean that I think romance is the key to happiness! that's just the emotion Scorpia is contending with in this chapter. there will be more chapters with more emotions!

Scorpia woke up at the shift in the bed when Perfuma disentangled herself from the sheets. Groggily, she looked over as Perfuma tiptoed over to the window to peek through the curtains, then look back at Scorpia.

“You can open the curtains if you want,” Scorpia said. “I’m awake.”

“You sure?” Perfuma asked. “I just wanted to do my morning meditations.”

“Yeah, open the curtains,” Scorpia said. “Is it OK if I do the meditations with you?”

She’d meditated with Perfuma before, but it had been with a couple of other friends, and Scorpia had spent the entire time opening her eyes to make sure that everyone else also still had their eyes closed.

“Of course,” Perfuma said. “I can guide you through them if you want.”

“If that’s OK?”

She got up and sat down next to Perfuma at the window, the warm early morning sunlight bathing the two of them. Perfuma smiled and kissed her cheek.

“Good morning, by the way,” she said. Scorpia was sure she was turning red- she was not used to this much affection first thing in the morning.

“Yeah, good morning,” she said, scratching her head with her pincer. “Um… so I gotta be honest, I’m terrible at meditation. Don’t expect too much.”

“Don’t worry,” Perfuma said. “It’s impossible to be terrible at meditation, because one of the most important parts of it is to be able to forgive yourself if you mess up. If you get distracted, you can just acknowledge the distraction and move forward.”

“Right,” Scorpia said, although she was still worried she’d somehow mess everything up.

“OK,” Perfuma said. “So the first step is to sit up with your back straight and your shoulders relaxed, which you’re already doing- great job! Next, take a deep breath in…”

Scorpia took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then exhaled.

“And then out,” Perfuma said, several moments after Scorpia had already exhaled.

“Ah, sorry,” Scorpia said. “I already breathed out- I told you, I’m bad at this-”

“Hey,” Perfuma said, placing a hand on Scorpia’s shoulder. “You’re doing fine. Would you prefer if we didn’t do a guided meditation? Just both took it at our own pace?”

“I just don’t want to mess up your morning routine,” Scorpia said. “I wanted to do it with you because I like doing things with you, but I don’t want to ruin it for you.”

“You could never ruin anything for me, Scorpia,” Perfuma said. “I do this every morning because I like to ground myself and remind myself about everything good in my life. And you’re one of the best things in my life. So just being with you means this is already going great.”

Scorpia blushed, leaning forward onto her knees, and said, “Aww… Perfuma. You’re so good to me.”

“I want to be,” Perfuma said, and smiled at her. Her smile was radiant, glowing in the sunlight.

“Should we try meditating again?” Scorpia asked. “This time I’ll just… make mistakes, and be OK with it!”

“Yeah, let’s do it!” Perfuma said. “Let’s make mistakes!”

They started the meditation again, Perfuma giving some general tips about breathing and some ideas to think about, but for the most part, they just spent a few minutes in quiet, just letting the warm sun and the comfort of each other’s presence bring them some calm.

After a few minutes, Perfuma said, “At the end of the meditation, I like to think about what makes me happy. So, picture what makes you happy, and carry that with you for the rest of the day.”

Scorpia, her eyes still closed- not worrying this time if they were supposed to be- and her breathing even, let her mind drift a bit, then focus on all the things that made her happy: her friends, Catra, Entrapta, Glimmer, Bow, Adora, Sea Hawk, Swift Wind, Frosta… the fact that she had so many friends that she couldn’t list them all. Her people and the work they were doing to rebuild the Scorpion Kingdom. Whenever she got to sing and perform and feel free to express herself. New experiences. Listening to friends go on and on about things they loved. The pasta from dinner yesterday-

“OK, now one last deep breath, and then we open our eyes,” Perfuma said.

Oh, she’d been saving thinking about Perfuma for last! Scorpia opened her eyes and looked over at Perfuma, who looked relaxed and content.

“Did the meditation go well for you?” she asked.

“Almost perfect,” Scorpia said.

“Almost?” Perfuma asked.

“Yeah, I didn’t get the chance to think about you at the end.”

Perfuma blushed.

“Well, you can see me now.”

“Wait, I have an idea,” Scorpia said, and then reached over to carefully scoop Perfuma into her arms, lifting her up and standing up in one fluid motion. Perfuma gasped.

“Wait- aah, sorry, should’ve asked permission first-” Scorpia said nervously.

“It’s totally fine,” Perfuma said, her voice breathy and strained.

“I just thought- it was sort of a pun, I kinda love puns- well, you said to think of what makes you happy and then carry it around with you, and I thought I would take it literally, y’know?”

Perfuma laughed, covering her mouth, and then put her arm around Scorpia’s shoulder, still laughing.

“OK, that’s genius,” she said. “And by the way, for future reference, you can feel free to pick me up and carry me whenever you want. I just hope it’s not too difficult.”

“Nah,” Scorpia said. “You’re easy to carry. I’ve had so much weight training that I can lift, like, a boulder, no problem.”

Perfuma sighed happily, and said, “Good to know.”

“I’ll set you down,” Scorpia said, and gently put Perfuma down on the bed. Perfuma leaned back on her elbows, looking up at Scorpia and biting her lip, and a rush of mixed affection and arousal flooded Scorpia’s brain.

She looked at the clock and said, “So, uh. It’s still pretty early.”

“Yeah,” Perfuma said, glancing out the window. “I like to get up with the sun, and in the summer, that’s early.”

“Fine by me,” Scorpia said. “The gardens you wanted to go to aren’t open yet, though- what do you want to do for now?”

“Honestly?” Perfuma asked. “I want to make out with you. Um! But only if you want to! And also I should brush my teeth first!”

Scorpia’s face was extremely warm, and she said, “Uh- yeah- I should brush my teeth too-” and darted into the bathroom.

Once the door was closed, she stared in the mirror and took a few deep breaths. She looked like a mess- bright red face, frizzy hair, her checkerboard pajamas clearly stained with sweat- was Perfuma just being nice? Had this whole thing just been Perfuma being nice?

She brushed her teeth frantically, her claw-compatible toothbrush getting bruised by how intensely she brushed, then gargled and wiped her brow, trying to calm down. The thought of making out with Perfuma was turning her on _way_ too much and Perfuma would notice and realize that Scorpia wasn’t a hot, mature princess for whom kissing was just an everyday activity, but a clueless former Horde soldier who was bad at sex and bad at everything else-

There was a knock on the bathroom door and Perfuma’s soft voice asking, “Can I come in?”

“Uh, sure,” Scorpia said, her polite instinct overriding everything else as always.

The door opened, and Perfuma walked in.

“Hey,” she said. “Are you OK? I…” She sighed. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t want to freak you out by expecting too much too fast. Sometimes I get carried away with how much I want things and… I never want you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with. OK?”

Scorpia stared.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean that, just because I want to make out with you, or do whatever else… you can always say no. Me wanting something doesn’t mean we have to do it.”

“You want to make out with me? Still?” Scorpia said. “But I ran in here like a crazy person and I look terrible, and I’m probably a bad kisser, and…”

“What?” Perfuma said. “You’re not a bad kisser. You’re not, like, an expert kisser or whatever, but I don’t think anyone really is. But kissing you last night felt really good. And you don’t look terrible, you look amazing, like you always do. I’m the one who’s so ruled by her feelings that when you asked what I wanted to do today, all I could think of was making out with you.”

“Oh,” Scorpia said. “But that’s what I want to do, too.”

“Oh,” Perfuma said. “So… we… So we’re both insecure for no reason, then?”

Scorpia laughed, a little nervously.

“I can’t believe you actually want me,” she admitted quietly.

“I can’t believe you want _me,_ ” Perfuma said.

“What? But you’re Perfuma! You’re amazing and beautiful.”

“And you’re _Scorpia_ , and _you’re_ amazing and beautiful.”

“I guess I’m having trouble believing it, I don’t know,” Scorpia said.

“Well, you know, the best way to reinforce belief in something is to see proof of it repeatedly,” Perfuma said. “If you want, I could give you some proof of how much I want you.”

She leaned closer to Scorpia, her mouth curling in a suggestive smile, and Scorpia, breath catching, said, “I’d- I’d be open to that.”

“Good,” Perfuma said, and reached up to kiss Scorpia, first softly, then more intensely, her hands feeling over Scorpia’s shoulders and then snaking around her neck. She was standing on her tiptoes, and Scorpia didn’t want her to strain, so she reached down to lift Perfuma up in the air. Perfuma gasped- that sound was fantastic, Scorpia needed to lift up Perfuma more- and grabbed Scorpia’s face again, kissing her harder.

Scorpia tried to keep her kisses as soft as possible, not wanting to hurt Perfuma’s gorgeous mouth, but Perfuma didn’t seem to have that concern, seemingly attempting to devour Scorpia’s mouth. She ran her hands over the back of Scorpia’s head, making Scorpia involuntarily moan, and then ran her fingers through Scorpia’s hair and along her scalp.

Perfuma broke off the kiss and gasped out, “We can- um- we can go to the bed- if that’s easier-”

“OK,” Scorpia said, her mind too kiss-addled to be nervous for the moment, and she carried Perfuma back into the main room and set her down on the bed again. She collapsed down next to her and reached over, wrapping her claw against the small of Perfuma’s back and diving back into kissing her girlfriend. Her _girlfriend._ It was mesmerizing- the warmth of Perfuma’s body, her soft curves, her hair, her scent like roses and jasmine, and the fact, which was definitely becoming more believable, that she was Scorpia’s girlfriend.

Scorpia released Perfuma’s lips and said softly, “I think this is working. I’m getting the message that you might like me.”

“Oh, really?” Perfuma said, her eyes half-closed and her face in a lazy smile. “Wow, I thought I was being really subtle.”

Scorpia laughed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I can be oblivious sometimes.”

“I can give you some more hints whenever you need,” Perfuma said.

“I’d like that,” Scorpia replied. “Maybe right now?”

Perfuma’s smile grew, and she leaned forward to kiss Scorpia again.

A few minutes later, both their phones chimed, and they reluctantly broke their kiss again.

“Ugh, who is it?” Perfuma said. “Oh, it’s Bow. Why is he up so _early?_ ”

“Whoa, I’ve never seen you not want to hear from a friend,” Scorpia said.

“Well, I was busy with something important,” Perfuma said, typing a response. Scorpia looked down at her phone to see the group chat:

**Bow:** scorpia, perfuma, we found out where they keep breakfast! come to our room we have all the breakfast

**Perfuma: typing**

**Perfuma:** one sec let me see if scorpia’s awake

“Perfuma, you know I’m awake,” Scorpia said.

“Yeah, I just wanted some leeway in case you didn’t want to go,” Perfuma explained.

“Well, as much as I’d like to, um, go back to what we were doing,” Scorpia said, “I also want to see what Glimmer and Bow found for breakfast.”

“True,” Perfuma said, still looking a bit disappointed.

“And,” Scorpia added, “we can make out more later. If you want.”

Perfuma’s face brightened, and she said, “Really?”

“Yeah, duh,” Scorpia said. “Wasn’t it obvious how much _I_ want to kiss you?”

“No, I thought I was the lesbian disaster here,” Perfuma said.

“Trust me, if one of us is a disaster of lesbian feelings, it’s me,” Scorpia said. “You didn’t notice how I was all… you know… obsessed with touching you and looking at you?”

“You are?” Perfuma asked. “That’s good to know. I thought I was the obsessed one.”

Scorpia smiled, half tempted to skip out on Glimmer and Bow after all and go back to making out with Perfuma, but she stopped herself and said, “Well… we should probably get dressed in regular clothes for breakfast.”

“Yeah,” Perfuma said, sighing, and they both grabbed their outfits and got ready for the day, taking turns in the bathroom. Scorpia threw on a t-shirt she’d found in a shop in Dryl that said THIS MACHINE LOVES HUGS with a picture of a robot hugging someone, and her usual black pants. She liked being able to wear different things sometimes- she wasn’t great at trying to look pretty, like Perfuma, but she had fun looking unique.

Perfuma emerged from the bathroom, wearing a flowy floral dress and flowers in her hair.

“You look amazing,” Scorpia said.

“So do you,” Perfuma said, smiling. “Come on, let’s head over to Bow’s room.”

The two of them headed over to Glimmer and Bow’s room, where the other four were sitting in a circle around the coffee table. It was absolutely covered in pastries, fruits, and various spreads.

“Do you know what a buffet is?” Adora said immediately, her eyes wide and sparkling.

“No,” Scorpia said.

“It’s a table with all sorts of foods, and you can take as many as you want!”

“Oh, like at Princess Prom,” Scorpia said.

“Yeah, only this one had _breakfast_ foods, which are so good! Try some!”

Scorpia and Perfuma went to sit down at the close end of the table, which Glimmer and Bow had equipped with tons of cushions again.

“So,” Bow said tentatively, while everyone got food. “Anything… interesting happen during your walk on the beach?”

“Oh, yeah!” Scorpia said. “The cloud waves are just as cool as I thought they would be! And we tried something called marshmallows? It was great!”

“Interesting,” Adora said. “Marshmallows. And what did you talk about?”

Perfuma rolled her eyes, put an arm around Scorpia’s waist, and looked up at Scorpia, who looked back. She gave her a questioning look.

“Wait, are you guys trying to figure out if we got together?” Scorpia asked. “Uh, we did. Right?”

“Yeah,” Perfuma said, her cheeks reddening. “Yeah, we’re girlfriends now.”

“Aww, that’s great!” Glimmer said. “I’m so happy for you!”

“We’re pretty happy too,” Perfuma said, and Scorpia nodded, leaning her shoulder into Perfuma’s and smiling uncontrollably.

Bow looked like he was nearly bursting, and Catra said, “Congrats, we were wondering when you two idiots would admit your feelings.”

Glimmer cracked up and said, “Yeah, you should have been more like Catra and Adora, who know a thing or two about confessing their feelings _right_ away and not repressing _anything_.”

“Shut up, Glimmer,” Catra said.

“Well, I’m glad you two are together,” Adora said. “I think you’re good for each other.”

“I know Perfuma’s good for me,” Scorpia said. “She’s amazing! I mean, look at her. She can make flowers grow! And she knows everything about all sorts of plants, _and_ she’s nice to everyone.”

“Geez, don’t be so cheesy,” Catra said, a sentiment that was undercut by her immediate move to crawl into Adora’s lap again.

“I like that you’re cheesy,” Perfuma said to Scorpia, leaning in closer to kiss her on the cheek.

Bow let out an inhuman shrieking noise, which made them all jump, and he said, “I’m sorry! I can’t take it anymore! You’re too cute!”

“Holy fuck, Bow,” Glimmer said. “What was that?”

Bow took a long breath. “I am trying to tell people they’re cute less,” he said, “ever since Catra nearly scratched my eye out.”

“Catra!” Adora admonished. “You did what?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Catra said. “I barely even hissed at him.”

“I was in real danger,” Bow said. “All I did was say that it was cute that you purr in your sleep.”

“Purring is _natural!_ ” Catra exclaimed, lunging forward, and Adora grabbed her shoulders.

“Shh, babe, stop,” she said, and guided Catra back to sitting in her lap, whispering something in her ear that made Catra turn red and fold her arms together, then smile.

“Well,” Perfuma said, “I’m OK with you calling _us_ cute.”

“Yeah, it’s nice of you to say!” Scorpia said. “And you’re right, Perfuma is very cute.”

“You’re cute, too,” Perfuma said, and Bow fell back against the bed, draping a hand against his forehead, and said, “Why do you even have runestones? You should all just use the power of being adorable. Glimmer, you could probably wipe out an entire army with your cuteness powers.”

Glimmer blushed and said, “Geez, don’t be so cheesy,” at which point Catra gave her a high five.

Perfuma leaned in to Scorpia and murmured in her ear, “I’m really happy right now.”

Scorpia turned to face Perfuma and said, “Yeah, me too.”

She _was_ happy, but she was a bit nervous too. This all felt surreal. Not just being with Perfuma, which was already intensely surreal, but all of this- her friends together and happy, even Catra being able to handle kindness. The world not being made up entirely of problems that she had to solve with a smile on her face. It was good, but it felt like a dream she was perpetually about to wake up from.

After breakfast, they headed out to different places, with Scorpia and Perfuma going to the magical gardens. Perfuma talked endlessly about the different types of plants, which made Scorpia fill up with affection, and she kept finding excuses to touch Scorpia- demonstrating some magical plant technique by wrapping vines around Scorpia’s arms, or just randomly surging up to kiss her.

“Sorry I keep kissing you,” Perfuma said, as they made their way through a topiary sculpture section. “Just, every time I see your face, I want to kiss you.”

“I like kissing you,” Scorpia said. “You can do it whenever you want.”

“OK then,” Perfuma said, and reached up to kiss her again.

When they broke the kiss and opened their eyes, the topiary sculptures around them had bloomed with bright red roses.

“Oh,” Perfuma said. “These must be empath bushes- they shift shape based on the emotions of the life-forms around them. And that combined with my powers made them bloom roses, which represent love.”

“Roses represent love?” Scorpia said. “That’s pretty cool! I always really liked roses.”

She looked at Perfuma, who was smiling softly, and said, “I guess the plants here were really able to read our feelings, huh?”

“Yeah,” Perfuma said, and leaned in to kiss her again.

­­The rest of the weekend, Scorpia thought when she was on her way back to the Scorpion Kingdom, had been equally happy… which was suspicious. After touring the gardens, they’d met back up with the others at the hot springs and had a lovely time playing a game of “who can come up with the worst pun”. They’d packed up and headed back to Bright Moon, the hour flight allowing for Scorpia and Perfuma to cuddle in their seats, and when they arrived back at Bright Moon, the group had hung out for a little while longer in the kitchens, laughing and eating snacks.

Scorpia’s phone was full of messages from her fellow scorpions, who’d informed her that the tech demonstration with Entrapta had gone relatively smoothly, which was a relief. It reminded her that she needed to head back, and she said goodbye. Perfuma had walked her to her flyer and kissed her before she left.

“Hey,” she said. “Message me when you get back. We’ll schedule more time to hang out.”

“That sounds good,” Scorpia said. She gave Perfuma one last kiss and then got on her flyer.

Once she was on the way home, and her mind had stopped buzzing with happiness, a sinking feeling developed in her stomach. Why was she happy? This was clearly way too good to be true. Not only had she had a perfectly lovely weekend with her friends, without anyone insulting her even once, but she’d started dating a woman who was nice to her? Started dating _Perfuma?_ It didn’t make sense. Something had to be off.

“Why can’t I just be happy?” Scorpia said out loud. She was so _good_ at being happy when everything was horrible, but now that everything was good, she was concerned.

When she landed back in the Scorpion Kingdom, she’d come up with a few conspiracy theories about what was really going on, and had also started planning a few meetings about scorpion business, to make up for her lack of work over the weekend. She didn’t want Perfuma to know about her suspicions, though- she’d already been so weird all weekend with her feelings, she didn’t want to pour _more_ negative feelings onto Perfuma, who deserved positivity.

She quickly messaged Perfuma, “Back home! Talk to you soon” and then headed over to say hello to everyone and congratulate them on all their hard work. Stingerelle showed off her ability to use Entrapta’s forklift, and Scorpia applauded her. The two of them scheduled a meeting for the next morning to discuss the housing project, and then Scorpia did a few more rounds to make sure everything was functioning (it was) before heading to bed.

As she tucked herself under the covers, she got a request for a video call from Perfuma.

“Hey there,” Scorpia said, answering the call. Perfuma’s face lit up the screen.

“Hi!” she said excitedly. “I miss you already!”

Scorpia’s heart ached. Why did Perfuma make her feel safe? What was this false sense of safety? When was the betrayal coming?

“I miss you too,” she said truthfully.

“How’re things in the Scorpion Kingdom? I know you were worried about how everyone would function, but I bet they did all right thanks to all your guidance!”

“Yeah, they did great,” Scorpia said. She stared off out her window.

Perfuma’s eyebrows wrinkled. “You OK?”

Scorpia nodded, not saying anything.

“I’ll give you space if you need it,” Perfuma said, and Scorpia nodded again, her eyes burning, and Perfuma said, “Scorpia? What’s happening? I promise you can trust me.”

Scorpia gasped out a breath, trying not to cry, and said, “You’re too nice. I’m scared. I’m scared it’s going to end.”

“Oh, Scorpia,” Perfuma said, her face falling, and that made Scorpia cry harder. “I’m… I wish I was there to hold you…” And then she started crying too, and then they were both crying in their separate rooms to each other and Scorpia was saying, “I’m so sorry! You deserve better!” and Perfuma was saying, “ _You’re_ the best and you’re wonderful!” and they were both sobbing and telling each other how wonderful they were.

Scorpia finally took a long breath and said, “I don’t understand myself. It used to be so easy to be positive when I was in the Horde and everything sucked. Now everything’s great and I’m crying because I have a nice girlfriend.”

“Actually, I do understand that,” Perfuma said. “Scorpia, you held yourself together for so long because that’s what you had to do to survive.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Scorpia said. “Other people survived the Horde without being happy.”

“They’re different. Like, Catra for example, her tactic to survive was to be cruel and shut everyone out. And of course, you saw how well that worked- you can’t survive on just hating everyone. But you can’t survive on being happy all the time, either. That was _your_ tactic and it’s one of the things I admire so much about you, that you were in this place full of sadness and you fought back with a smile.”

Scorpia wiped away her tears and said, “How come I was able to do that there, but I can’t do it now?”

“Because now you don’t have to. Now all that pain that you hid away is coming back. Of _course_ you’re scared. Every time you got a little bit of affection, it was taken away. Now I’m giving you all my affection because, well, because I really want to. That’s scary.”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “It really is.” She sighed and then quickly added, “I mean, don’t get me wrong- it’s good- but you’re right. It’s scary, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Perfuma said softly, and Scorpia leaned her head against her bedframe, frustrated with herself.

“Are you sure you want to date me still?” she asked. “Wouldn’t you rather date someone who’s not such a mess? That you don’t have to _apologize_ to for being too nice?”

“Um,” Perfuma said. “No? I like being with you.”

“But I don’t think I’m going to stop being like this anytime soon,” Scorpia said. “You’re really willing to deal with me doing this?”

“OK,” Perfuma said, wiping away her own tears and sitting up straighter. “Having emotional issues _is_ something that can lead to a strained relationship. But that’s only if you handle them in a bad way. If you take them out on me by being cruel, or if you expect me to magically read your mind and get angry if I don’t.”

Scorpia laughed suddenly and said, “I’m sorry- I didn’t mean to laugh- you just made me think of Catra.”

“Right, yeah, that was why Catra was bad for you. But you don’t act like that. Having emotional issues doesn’t make you a bad girlfriend. I mean, does it make me a bad girlfriend?”

“Do you have emotional issues?” Scorpia said. “You’re so nice all the time.”

Perfuma laughed and rolled her eyes.

“Scorpia, honestly! _You’re_ nice all the time. It’s possible to be sad and still be nice. And by the way, yes, I do have emotional issues. You don’t remember me worrying that I was being too possessive over you all morning?”

“What do you mean?” Scorpia asked.

“Um, because I wouldn’t stop hanging all over you and trying to make out with you every ten seconds? It was so embarrassing!”

“What are you talking about? It was so cute! Bow even said it was cute! And I _know_ I thought it was the cutest thing ever.”

“Well… see? I thought I looked like a really aggressive weed trying to take over somebody’s garden, and you thought I was cute. Trust me,” Perfuma said. “I’m lucky that I can seem emotionally stable, because I’ve been lucky to learn so many healthy ways of thinking and living. But we’re all just awkward, scared people on the inside. You’ll just have to trust that I want to be with you anyway.”

“It’s hard for me to trust people,” Scorpia admitted.

“I know,” Perfuma said. “But I know you and I know you can do anything you put your mind to.”

Scorpia smiled softly. “That’s true. And getting to talk to you and cuddle with you is a lot more fun than trying to repair the kitchen after Sea Hawk burned a batch of fish soup.”

Perfuma laughed. “How did he burn soup that badly?”

“It’s Sea Hawk! He’s very talented at burning things!”

“You have to tell me that story.”

“Well, it started when Pincer said Sea Hawk couldn’t possibly make a better soup than him…”

They kept talking for a while, until both of them were too tired to hold their devices, and by the time Scorpia fell asleep, she felt warm and OK.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw you can follow me at arielmagicesi on Tumblr or @ArielKalati on Twitter  
> and also I live for Scorpia bridal-carrying Perfuma, sorry if that's too lesbionic of me...


	8. Intimacy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter with the smut I foretold, hence this being bumped up to a Mature rating!  
> Some notes:  
> 1) it's been a while since any woman has touched me, so apologies for any inaccuracies, just chalk it up to the fact that they're alien princesses  
> 2) I'm keeping the smut "genital-neutral" so to speak, which is to say that I'm not going to describe their genitals. They can really have whatever genitals and I prefer leaving that ambiguous since I dislike the concept that women/lesbians can only have one kind of genitalia. I also know that trans Perfuma headcanons/canon? are popular, which I think is great, but I am cis so I don't think it's my place to decide for trans readers their interpretation of the text. All this to say: any reference to genitals will be vague and you can fill in the blanks however you want.
> 
> that's it! There's also non-smut stuff in this chapter so if you don't care for smut, there's regular fluff too

“Um, Perfuma? Hey? Are you listening?”

Antler finally stomped her hooves on the floor of the meeting hall. “ _Perfuma!_ Have you been listening to anything in this meeting?”

Perfuma jumped. “Yes! Yes, right… You’re all doing an amazing job! Is it 4:00 yet?”

Everyone in the room groaned.

Fawn, her primary advisor, said, “Perfuma, we are all very happy for you and Scorpia, but you’ve been daydreaming all week. Can you please focus?”

“I’m sorry,” Perfuma said. “Thank you all for the work you’ve been doing, though. I did hear you proposing a way to make the supply line to the Crimson Waste more efficient, Antler?”

“Yes,” Antler said. “And I’m not repeating it again, so here, you can read over the proposal whenever you get your focus back.” She slid over a thin folder, which Perfuma took gratefully.

“Now,” Fawn said, “we all have our weekend assignments, correct?”

Everyone nodded, and Perfuma added, “Please remember to also take care of yourselves! Plumeria’s been blessed with a lot of good luck, and I’m really glad that we’re taking it on ourselves to help other kingdoms, but remember that it’s OK to rest, too.”

Everyone nodded again and then Fawn called the meeting to an end and everyone shuffled out to their various places. Perfuma placed her head in her hands and groaned.

“I’m terrible!” she said. “One adorable woman in my head and I can’t run my kingdom!”

“Hey, relax,” Fawn said. “You’ve been running things just fine, you just do some of your duties at unusual hours, and sometimes you spend twenty minutes telling people about Scorpia’s biceps when you were supposed to be updating them on new safety codes.”

Perfuma slumped over onto the table, more embarrassed, but also trying to hide the dreamy look that had come over her face at the mention of Scorpia’s biceps.

“It’s fine,” she murmured against the table. “Uh, is it 4:00 yet?”

“It’s 3:30,” Fawn said. “She’ll be here soon, don’t worry. Go get ready, I’ll clean up in here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, honestly.”

“OK, thank you,” Perfuma said, and she rushed out to her pavilion, intent on fixing up her hair and maybe dabbing herself with some rose oil before Scorpia arrived for her visit. They’d spent the week chatting every night and sending messages to each other throughout the day. Scorpia sent her pictures of the rapidly growing flora all around the Scorpion Kingdom, plus selfies of her smiling and waving at the camera. Perfuma sent Scorpia pictures of cute animals and messages full of affirmations and mental health tips.

When she made her way into her home, she heard a distinct metal clanging in the kitchen and ran over to see what was happening, then let out a shriek of surprise upon what she saw.

“Hi there, Perfuma!” Entrapta said, her hair wrapped around a metal baking pan that had fallen to the floor. Frosta was sitting on top of the counter and looked awkward.

“Hi to you too,” Perfuma said slowly. “Um, what are you doing in my kitchen?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise!” Frosta said. “Weren’t you supposed to be in your meeting until 4?”

“It ended early. Wait, you guys were planning a surprise for me? Aww, that’s so sweet! But uh, I’m actually meeting with Scorpia in a few minutes.”

“We know!” Entrapta said. “She enlisted our help. And I’m always happy to help Scorpia, because she’s always been a great friend to me. Well, except for the time she sent me to Beast Island, but I understand that she was in a tough position _and_ she’s apologized for that numerous times! Not to mention, Beast Island is full of amazing tech-”

“Entrapta,” Perfuma said softly. “Remember when we talked about appropriate times?”

“Right!” Entrapta said. “I’m sorry!”

“It’s OK, it’s just tough to remember the war,” Perfuma said.

“I know,” Entrapta said, her face falling a little bit. “I’m trying to be more sensitive.”

Frosta leaned forward to pat Entrapta on the head, and Perfuma said, “I’m proud of you for trying, Entrapta.”

“Thanks,” Entrapta said, and smiled. “Anyway, I guess you found out our surprise plan already! Scorpia asked me to help plan a date for you two, which is excellent because as I told her, you two make an excellent couple! I checked my friendship notes and we decided that baking together would be a wonderful experience, because you like baking things sometimes! Then I remembered that it’s summer and using an oven might be uncomfortable in this heat. So we enlisted Frosta, who was happy to help with her heat-combating skills!”

“And, I missed you guys,” Frosta said.

“Oh… you two are… You’re such good friends!” Perfuma said, tearing up a little and squeezing her hands, then running over to wrap them both in a hug.

“Wow, you and Scorpia have a _lot_ in common,” Entrapta commented.

Perfuma stepped back and said, “OK, well, don’t you worry any more about preparing the kitchen. Make yourselves at home, eat something, drink some water, sit down and rest. I’m gonna go fix my hair.”

“Fix your hair?” Entrapta asked. “Is it broken? _Wait,_ does your hair have powers too?”

“No… it’s an expression… Never mind,” Perfuma said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

She rushed to her bedroom and quickly fixed up her hair, touched up her makeup, and dabbed herself with some rose oil, then emerged in the front hall just in time to hear Scorpia’s voice go, “Frosta? Entrapta? You guys here?”

Perfuma ran to the entrance and lifted her front-door curtain to say, “Hello, Scorpia,” at which point Scorpia shouted in surprise and jumped. A pile of flowers flew out of her arms and onto the ground.

“Perfuma!” she said, turning red. She was in different clothes than usual- a boxy bright pink shirt and loose shorts that looked amazing on her.

“I thought- your meeting-,” she said awkwardly, “hi, oh my gosh, it’s _so_ good to see you. I brought you flowers, as, uh, as you can see- but I dropped them-”

“Hey,” Perfuma said, and walked over to gently reach her hands up and place them on Scorpia’s shoulders. “It’s good to see you, too. Sorry I startled you.”

She reached up to kiss Scorpia, which she’d been thinking about doing all week, and which she’d definitely told Scorpia about approximately ten thousand times (Scorpia had responded each time by affirming that Perfuma was free to kiss her whenever possible). Scorpia’s shoulders relaxed and she melted into the kiss, sighing.

When they broke apart, Scorpia said, “I missed you. I know we talk all the time but I still missed you.”

“I missed you too,” Perfuma said, leaning her head against Scorpia’s chest. “Also, Entrapta and Frosta tell me you planned something nice?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise!” Scorpia said.

“It _was_ a surprise. A really nice one. Come on, they’re waiting for us in the kitchen.”

Perfuma took Scorpia’s claw and led her over to the kitchen, where Entrapta was currently in Perfuma’s pantry sorting the pasta by size, and Frosta was sitting and eating from the fruit bowl on the table.

“Scorpia!” Frosta and Entrapta shouted at the same time, and ran over to hug her. Scorpia let go of Perfuma’s hand and hugged them back, shouting, “Yay! Princess Squad!”

“I asked my kitchen staff,” Entrapta said, “and they sent me over with all the best baking supplies and ingredients. You’ll be able to make tiny pies, tiny cakes, tiny bread rolls, pretty much anything!”

“And I’ve been practicing temperature control,” Frosta said, “so I’ll be able to keep the kitchen cool and comfortable while the oven still stays hot enough to bake things.”

“You guys,” Scorpia said, tears forming in her eyes. “I am so lucky to have the best friends ever!”

“Should we leave so you two can have alone time?” Entrapta said. “Alone time is an important part of relationship development.”

“Don’t be silly,” Perfuma said. “We want to hang out with you!”

“Yeah, you came all this way,” Scorpia said. “It’s been forever since we hung out, Frosta.”

“I saw you, like, three weeks ago,” Frosta said.

“Exactly, forever.”

They spent some time discussing what they should make, and eventually settled on blueberry cupcakes. Entrapta peered, fascinated, while Perfuma mixed the dry ingredients, and asked questions about the chemical components of the dish. Scorpia, meanwhile, scooped butter and powdered sugar into a mixer to make frosting. When she turned the mixer on, powdered sugar flew in a cloud in the air, and she quickly turned the power off.

“I think you’re not supposed to mix it on the highest setting,” Frosta said dryly.

Scorpia turned around, her face and shirt dusted in powdered sugar, and Perfuma giggled- she looked adorable. Scorpia smiled.

“The perfect touch to complete my outfit, right?” she said.

“Exactly,” Perfuma said. “Baking tends to get messy.”

“Messy, my favorite kind of activity!” Entrapta said.

“Mine too!” Frosta said. “Let me try mixing the frosting next!”

Entrapta and Frosta gathered around the mixer, figuring out the settings, and Scorpia walked over to where Perfuma was washing the blueberries.

“Hey, flower,” she said brightly. “So, when do we put the blueberries in? I’ve actually never had blueberries.”

“You haven’t?”

“No. I’ve been working my way through all the different foods I never tried before. There are so many!”

“Blueberries are great,” Perfuma said. “Here, try one.”

She picked one out of the bowl and lifted it to Scorpia’s mouth, shyly- she’d been wanting to do that again. Scorpia turned red but smiled and ate the blueberry, her eyes lighting up.

“Every berry I’ve had so far is so good,” Scorpia said.

“I can give you more,” Perfuma said.

“Let’s save the rest for the cupcakes,” Scorpia said, still red, and then she quickly leaned in and kissed Perfuma’s forehead, turning redder. Perfuma grinned.

They mixed the wet and dry ingredients, creating a smooth batter, and Frosta and Perfuma scooped it out into the cupcake holders and stuck them in the oven.

“Does the air feel comfortable?” Frosta asked, a bit nervously.

“Yeah, it’s lovely,” Perfuma said. “You’re really good at this temperature control thing.”

Frosta shrugged. “It’s really nice to use my powers for something other than fighting for once. There’s so much good I could do with ice powers that I never thought of before.”

“That’s amazing!” Scorpia said. “Your ice powers are so cool and helping people is cool, too- what an excellent combo!”

Frosta grinned.

“You have super cool pincers and electricity powers,” she said to Scorpia. “What do you do with those?”

Scorpia looked questioningly into the middle distance.

“I, uh… actually, I’m not sure. I haven’t used my powers in a while. I mean, what could I do with them besides fighting stuff?”

“Are you kidding?” Frosta said. “I bet there’s so much you could do!”

“If you let me study your skills and help you perfect them,” Entrapta added, “we could use your electric powers as a potential energy source.”

“You don’t have to use them at all,” Perfuma said, slightly worried at the overwhelmed look on Scorpia’s face. “Your greatest power is your love and friendship.”

“I always thought that too,” Scorpia said. “But if I could use my runestone for something good… that would mean a lot, actually.”

“Yeah,” Frosta agreed, sighing and laying her head on the table. “It’s kind of weird how we have all this magic power and only ever thought of it as a weapon.”

Perfuma looked at the two princesses, her face bent a bit with worry. She’d grown up with the knowledge that her runestone was for cultivating the land, for bringing food and fuel to her people, for making the plants and animals flourish. She’d, of course, learned to harness that power for strength in battle, but it had never been the primary use.

Entrapta chimed in, “Weaponry is the least of what technology can do. That’s all that magic is- a type of technology, whether it was made by the First Ones, or by old Etherians, or something even older that I don’t even know about. And technology can be used for so many good things! We just used it to bake delicious sweet treats!”

Scorpia smiled, and Frosta lifted her head from the table a bit.

“You’re right,” Perfuma said. “We’ve spent so long focusing on war that we forgot there’s so much more to life. But there _is_ so much more to life, and it’s waiting for us.”

She placed a hand on Scorpia’s claw, smiling, and Scorpia looked back at her with bright eyes.

When the cupcakes were finished, everyone had a few, and then Entrapta rushed off for a meeting she’d scheduled with some Plumerians about agricultural technology. Frosta, after eating three cupcakes, said, “Micah and Glimmer invited me to a board game night- is it OK if I head over to Bright Moon?”

“Of course it is!” Perfuma said. “Tell them hi from us!”

Frosta headed out a few minutes later, and Perfuma sighed and leaned back in her chair, looking over at Scorpia and finally letting herself shamelessly stare at her girlfriend. Scorpia had gotten up and started washing the dishes, filling all the bowls with hot water and too many bubbles, then skewering a sponge on her pincers and scrubbing. Perfuma got up and snaked her arms around Scorpia’s waist, saying, “Hey, there.”

“Oh, hey! This is nice,” Scorpia said, turning her head to smile at Perfuma. Perfuma grinned and leaned her head against Scorpia’s strong back.

“You don’t have to wash the dishes, you know,” she said.

“It’s no problem,” Scorpia said. “I like washing dishes. Besides, I wanted everything to be nice for you today. You’re always so good to me, I wanted to do something good for you.”

“Scorpia,” Perfuma said. “You’re good for me all the time.”

Scorpia shrugged. “I mean I wanted to do something, you know, romantic. To show you how much I like you.”

Perfuma hid her face, which was currently blushing and excessively smiling, in the curves of Scorpia’s back muscles.

“That’s why I brought flowers,” Scorpia said. “Roses, from the Bright Moon gardens. Oh my gosh, I left them outside! I’ll go get them!”

She leapt out of Perfuma’s arms, leaving Perfuma a bit startled, and ran, with her claws still covered in suds, to go pick up the flowers she’d dropped outside. A few moments later, she came back with a slightly mussed, but still beautiful bouquet of roses.

“They’re not as pretty as you are,” Scorpia said, handing them over. “But you know, you like flowers, and I remember that roses bloomed in that garden in Mystacor, and I thought you might like these?”

Perfuma set the bouquet of roses in the vase she always kept on her table, then reached up to kiss Scorpia.

“They’re lovely,” she said. “And I love that you got them for me.”

“Well, I want to do nice things for you. What do you want to do now? Whatever you want. Gardening, meditation, eating a salad?”

“We don’t have to eat a salad,” Perfuma said, and Scorpia let out a breath of relief.

“I _would_ eat a salad if it meant spending time with you,” she said. “But I do prefer those cupcakes we made.”

“They were very good,” Perfuma agreed.

“OK, so what _do_ you want to do? I mean it, whatever you want.”

Perfuma shrugged. “I just want to spend time with you. Maybe we can go cuddle in the other room and you can tell me how your day went?”

“That sounds great!” Scorpia said. “Can you tell me how your day went, too?”

“Sure,” Perfuma said, taking Scorpia’s arm and leading her over to the bedroom.

She realized that Scorpia had never seen her bedroom before. Scorpia had visited Plumeria once or twice, and had stopped off in Perfuma’s pavilion briefly, but never long enough to see any rooms besides the entrance area. The pavilion had a fairly open floor plan for the most part, but Perfuma did make sure to have a thick set of curtains around her bedroom in case she needed privacy.

She wanted to let Scorpia in there, though. She felt comfortable with her, and she wanted the closeness and intimacy of sharing her private spaces. Metaphorically or literally.

The room was comfortable, with vines and branches collaborating to create the domed ceiling, several windows to let in sunlight, and lots of cushions and trinkets to make it feel like home. Flowers hung from the ceiling, old stuffed animals hung out on the couch, stained-glass lanterns provided colored light, and the bed was large and cozy.

Perfuma curled up on the bed, and after hesitating for a moment, Scorpia laid down next to her. Perfuma cuddled up to Scorpia, resting her head on Scorpia’s chest and wrapping an arm around her waist. Scorpia lifted a claw to wrap around Perfuma’s back and smiled down at her.

“Your room is so nice,” she said. “I never thought of architecture that’s made of plants.”

“Lots of architecture is made of plants,” Perfuma said. “What do you think wood is?”

“Wait, wood is a plant?”

“Yeah, it’s made from dead trees.”

“Wow, the world is so much weirder than I knew.”

“I know, isn’t it great?” Perfuma said, and Scorpia said, “Yeah.”

She kissed Perfuma’s forehead, then quickly sat back up, blushing, and Perfuma said, “So, come on, tell me about your day.”

Scorpia launched into a tale of the Scorpion Kingdom’s exploits that day. Every day was busy for her, and she’d been telling Perfuma about it in their chats all week. Even with the significant help from the Princess Alliance, there was still a lot of work for everyone to do. That day, Scorpia had supervised the finishing touches on the Scorpion Palace.

“It’s not as grand as the last one,” she said, “but it’s still really nice. Besides, we all agreed- the ORSK, I mean- we all agreed that we don’t want the palace to be such a huge big deal. The royal family is an important part of our history, but the Scorpion Kingdom is about _all_ the scorpions. So the palace is really just the beginning. We’re also building a museum, a community center, obviously all the housing that Stingerelle is heading up, and a bunch of other stuff.”

“That all sounds wonderful,” Perfuma said. Scorpia had already told her about the other projects, but she liked hearing her talk about all the things that made her enthusiastic. “I think it’s fantastic that you’re connecting to your people so well.”

“It’s important to me,” Scorpia said.

“That’s what makes a good princess. You’re doing an amazing job at being a princess.”

“Well, I learned from the best,” Scorpia said.

Perfuma smiled, and said, “I can’t wait to visit your kingdom next weekend and see you in action.”

“Oh, it’s gonna be great! I’ll introduce you to everybody. They all know a lot about you, because, well…” Scorpia blushed. “I talk about you a lot.”

Perfuma laughed. “Trust me, my board of advisors is sick of hearing about you.”

“Oh, no,” Scorpia said, her brow creasing. “Are you sure they’ll be OK with me being here?”

“Relax!” Perfuma said, smoothing the hair off Scorpia’s forehead. “They’ll love you. It’s my talking that they’re sick of. I keep telling them about how sweet you are, all the things you’ve done to help me, everything you do to help your people, your biceps, etc.”

“My biceps?” Scorpia asked.

“Oh, those are arm muscles.”

“Oh, uh, I do know what those are,” Scorpia said. “One thing the Horde _did_ teach was muscle structure. I just meant why tell your advisors about them?”

Perfuma turned red and covered her face in her hands. “Because I’m gay?”

“Wait, do you find my biceps attractive?”

Perfuma uncovered her face to look at Scorpia, whose eyes were wide with genuine curiosity.

“Scorpia, obviously I do,” she said. “You’re so strong.”

“Being strong is attractive? I mean… I guess that makes sense, other strong women are attractive…” Scorpia tilted her head to the side. “I guess I was always just taught to see my strength as a battle advantage, not something women would like.”

“Oh, trust me,” Perfuma said, running her hand over Scorpia’s arm. “Women like it. And by women, I mean me.”

“Yeah?” Scorpia said, turning a little red.

“Definitely,” Perfuma said. “I mean, you can pick me up with those gorgeous arms… or just give me great hugs… or…”

“Or what?” Scorpia asked, her voice going a little quieter and her face turning a little redder.

Perfuma turned even redder and said, voice a bit strained, “Or hold me down on this bed and kiss me for hours.”

Scorpia let out a long, shaky breath and said, “I- uh- I- yeah- I could- that is something I could do. Yes. You’re right- my biceps- very useful.”

Perfuma ran her hands up both of Scorpia’s arms, looking in Scorpia’s eyes the whole time, her entire face warm and her heart beating rapidly.

“Do you want to?” she asked. “Kiss me, I mean.”

“Um, yeah,” Scorpia said. “I’ve only been thinking about it all week.”

“Me, too,” Perfuma said, and leaned forward. Scorpia met her lips and kissed her softly, the way she always seemed to, and Perfuma brought her hands to Scorpia’s face, tilting her head gently. She pressed up closer, delighted to feel Scorpia’s warm chest against her own, and ran her fingers over Scorpia’s hair, scratching a little, to be rewarded by the sound of Scorpia’s soft moan against her lips. Fuck, that was hot. She pulled at Scorpia’s lower lip with her teeth, then let her tongue lick into Scorpia’s perfect mouth. Scorpia gasped out a quick breath before letting herself get enveloped in the kiss again.

“Oh,” she gasped, in between Perfuma’s desperate kisses. “Oh, Perfuma…”

“What?” Perfuma murmured, leaning back in to suck on Scorpia’s lip.

“Mmm… this is really good…”

“Yeah,” Perfuma breathed.

“Do you want me to, um… what you said before?”

Perfuma broke from Scorpia’s lips and opened her eyes. “Hold me down against the bed? Yes, please.”

Scorpia swallowed and shifted in the bed. Perfuma let her head fall back against her pillows, and let Scorpia guide her body to lie down, and then Scorpia was, slightly awkwardly but still unbearably hot, placing one thigh on either side of Perfuma’s waist and leaning down until her elbows were on either side of Perfuma’s chest and her whole body, surprisingly soft but still lined with hard armor, was resting heavy over Perfuma’s.

Perfuma let out a long breath.

“Are you comfortable?” Scorpia asked. “I hope I’m not crushing you.”

“I’m _extremely_ comfortable,” Perfuma said, bringing her hand up again to run through Scorpia’s hair. “And you’re not crushing me, although I would be fine if you did.”

“Oh, no, I don’t want to accidentally suffocate you.”

“I trust that you wouldn’t. Besides, if I had to choose how to go, it would be suffocation by way of Scorpia.”

Scorpia laughed nervously and said, “I really like kissing you. I hope I’m doing OK.”

“You’re doing more than OK,” Perfuma said, and guided Scorpia’s face back to meet her own. Scorpia kissed her a bit harder now, the pressure of her whole body adding intensity to the kiss, and Perfuma’s other arm travelled over Scorpia’s back, exploring those muscles. An image of Scorpia holding down the underwater club suddenly flashed through her head, and she willed it to go away, not wanting to think of the terror and grief of that moment.

Scorpia broke from her lips, and Perfuma was worried she’d noticed the sudden mood change, but she just whispered, “Can I kiss your neck? It’s so pretty and I always wanted to kiss it.”

“Oh my God,” Perfuma said. “Yes.”

Scorpia bent her head down and laid a soft kiss on Perfuma’s neck, then another, then another, travelling up to the delicate skin below Perfuma’s ear, where she left a warm, wet kiss, then opened her mouth and started sucking at Perfuma’s neck in earnest. Perfuma let out an embarrassing moan, breathing out, “Scorpia…”

Scorpia lifted her head, saying into Perfuma’s ear, “Sorry- was that OK?”

“Yes, oh my god, go back to that…”

“OK,” Scorpia said, and went back to sucking on Perfuma’s neck. Perfuma closed her eyes and tilted her head back, sighing and letting out a soft gasp of pleasure.

Scorpia kissed her way down to the neckline of Perfuma’s dress, tentatively mouthing at the hem, which made Perfuma’s stomach turn in arousal. God, she was _so_ gone for this woman. To be fair, most women, especially tall buff women, could make her knees weak really easily, but Scorpia was turning her into a mess.

Scorpia brought her lips back up to Perfuma’s, giving her a long lingering kiss, and Perfuma, overcome with desire, brought a hand up to cup one of Scorpia’s breasts. Scorpia stuttered a gasp against Perfuma’s lips.

“This OK?” Perfuma asked.

“ _Yes,_ ” Scorpia said, and Perfuma squeezed through her shirt, kneading with her fingers, and leaned forward to kiss Scorpia’s neck. Scorpia moaned and said, “Wow- _oh-_ ”

Perfuma grabbed Scorpia’s other breast and then bit down on her neck, which made Scorpia involuntarily buck her hips forward and gasp, “Oh- sorry-”

“No,” Perfuma said. “Keep- keep doing that-”

She grabbed at Scorpia’s head, kissing her fiercely, and Scorpia broke off and said, “Are- are you sure? I’m just-”

She was breathing hard and her face was bright red.

“You’re just-” she continued. “Fuck… you’re so _hot_ and touching you like this… I’m just…”

Perfuma had rarely heard Scorpia curse, and had never seen her like this- desperate, gasping, eyes dark and chest heaving. It was making Perfuma’s head and the space between her legs conspire against her ability to think rationally.

“Turned on?” she offered.

Scorpia nodded, biting her lip and closing her eyes. Perfuma reached up and touched Scorpia’s face softly.

“Me, too,” she said. “God, Scorpia, you have no idea what you’re doing to me.”

“Is it- is it bad?” Scorpia said, her face filling with worry.

“No,” Perfuma said quickly. “It’s so good. I just want to make sure you’re comfortable.”

“I am,” Scorpia said. “I’ve just… I don’t know. I’ve never done this before. Not like _this._ Not with someone who… you know, participates. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“I can help you figure it out,” Perfuma said.

“But…” Scorpia looked down at the bed, and it took a moment for Perfuma to realize she was looking at her claws.

“Is it because of your claws?” Perfuma asked. “I told you before, I trust that I’m not gonna get injured from them.”

“Yeah, but…” Scorpia looked off to the side. “If we ever… How are we ever going to…”

“Have sex?” Perfuma filled in.

“Yeah. It’s impossible.”

“What? No, it’s not.”

“But I want… you know… I want to make you feel good,” Scorpia said. “How am I going to do that without hands?”

Perfuma blushed, a lot of images suddenly rushing through her head. She tried to focus.

“Um,” she said, trying to get her thoughts together. “You… OK, so you mentioned once that you had sex ed classes in the Horde. What exactly did they actually teach you about sex?”

“Oh,” Scorpia said, and sat up. “Uh, well, they kinda realized that the soldiers were going to have sex whether they liked it or not, so when we turned thirteen, they would just pile us into a room and go over some stuff. Mostly just to prevent pregnancies or diseases. I know a _lot_ about sexually transmitted diseases. Sorry- probably not the thing to bring up right now- anyway. Uh, they taught us about contraception methods, pretty thoroughly? And they taught us that it’s really important to make sure that all parties are on board for any sexual activities you engage in. That’s about it? We had a test at the end.”

“OK,” Perfuma said. “I guess that makes sense for teaching thirteen-year-olds… but did anyone ever tell you about, you know, different kinds of sex?”

Scorpia shrugged. “I mean, my teammates told jokes, and sometimes I overheard stories, and I sort of pieced it together in my head. And then after what happened with Catra…” She bit her lip again, and Perfuma sat up, too, and set her hands gently at Scorpia’s waist.

“I guess,” Scorpia continued, “I just realized eventually that you can’t do much to make your partner feel good if you don’t have hands.”

Perfuma looked directly into Scorpia’s eyes, which were filled with worry.

“Well,” she said, “I’m here to tell you that that’s not true. Sex doesn’t have to be just one way, you know. There are so many different kinds of bodies in the world, and people like so many different kinds of things. For example, I happen to have a thing for women who have strong biceps and short white hair and hard exoskeletons.”

“Yeah, and I like women with beautiful freckles and soft curls and flower magic,” Scorpia said, smiling a little.

“Exactly. The world has room for lots of specifics like that. And… I’m sorry that anyone ever made you feel like your body wasn’t one of them. But we can have sex. I can show you exactly how we can make each other feel good. When- uh- when you’re ready, of course.”

Scorpia looked down at Perfuma, her eyes roaming suddenly over Perfuma’s body, and said, “I’m ready now, if you are.”

“Oh,” Perfuma said, her mouth suddenly dry. “I’m good with that.”

They looked into each other’s eyes, both of their mouths open, and then Perfuma threw her arms around Scorpia’s neck and rushed forward to kiss her.

Scorpia’s legs were still wrapped around Perfuma’s waist, and Perfuma broke the kiss to gasp out, “One second,” and then placed one of her legs around Scorpia’s so their legs were intertwined. Then, adrenaline jolting through her, she pushed forward, pressing herself against Scorpia’s leg, and gasped again, pressing her forehead into Scorpia’s shoulder and rubbing harder.

“Wow,” Scorpia breathed, and then suddenly placed her claws under the curve of Perfuma’s ass, lifting her up, causing Perfuma to let out another sharp breath. Scorpia pressed her mouth to Perfuma’s ear and whispered, “I love the sound you make when I pick you up.”

Perfuma laughed breathily, saying, “I love your _arms._ ”

Scorpia was kissing and sucking at her neck again, and Perfuma was pressing her groin against Scorpia’s hard, muscular leg over and over again, overwhelmed with pleasure. Her back was getting tired though, so she said, “Can we lie down again?”

“Yes,” Scorpia said, her voice somewhat muffled by Perfuma’s neck, and she wrapped one claw lovingly around Perfuma’s back and laid her down on the bed, their legs untangling a little. Perfuma gazed up at Scorpia, desperate to be touching again, and Scorpia leaned over her, bracing herself on her claws, and said, “Were you- did that feel good… you on my leg?”

“Yes,” Perfuma whispered, a little embarrassed.

“Good,” Scorpia said, sighing, and then said, “Can you tell me what else would feel good for you?”

Perfuma’s face turned warmer and she said, “If you, um…”

She reached down and pulled her dress up a bit- it’d already ridden up to her knees, but she pulled it up over her waist- and then she slipped a knee between Scorpia’s legs and pressed it up against Scorpia’s groin. Scorpia moaned.

“Oh- oh, wow,” she gasped. “Can I…”

“ _Yes_ ,” Perfuma said, not waiting for the end of her answer, and Scorpia pressed closer against her, rolling her hips, causing them both to gasp, and then their legs were wrapped around each other’s and Perfuma could _feel_ Scorpia against her, through her thin underwear and the loose shorts that Scorpia was wearing that she had loved looking at but liked feeling even more. Scorpia was moving slowly but deliberately, her eyes shut tight in concentration, and Perfuma grabbed her face to kiss her again. They kissed slowly, then more desperately as Perfuma began pushing up and up, pleasure rolling over her whole body, her hands rushing to explore Scorpia’s gorgeous body. Scorpia started moving faster, her legs growing slick with sweat, letting out ragged breaths. God, she was so hot… oh my God, she was so hot… Perfuma gasped, “Scorpia, you’re so hot.”

“You,” Scorpia gasped out, then moaned, unable to finish her sentence, and she suddenly bit down on Perfuma’s shoulder, which made Perfuma moan in turn and start rutting against her girlfriend harder.

“I, I,” she moaned, feeling the pleasure in her stomach build quicker, and she gasped into Scorpia’s neck, “I’m gonna… oh my God, Scorpia-”

She came hard, squeezing Scorpia’s arms and gasping out a litany of breaths and moans. Scorpia kept going, her eyes open now, staring down at Perfuma while she fucked her thigh, and then she let out a loud moan and came too.

Both of them took a while to catch their breath, both covered in sweat and overcome with pleasure. Scorpia finally slid off of Perfuma’s leg and collapsed on the bed next to her.

Perfuma took in a deep breath, wiped her forehead and rearranged her dress, then looked over at Scorpia, who was staring at the ceiling.

“Scorpia?” she murmured, still in a haze of lazy warm happiness. “You good?”

“Oh my God, yes,” Scorpia breathed out. “Yeah, yeah, I just need a sec.”

She let out a long, harsh exhale, then took another deep breath and shifted onto her side to face Perfuma. Her eyes were wet.

“Don’t worry,” she said, smiling. “I’m not crying out of anything bad. That was just… the thing you said, that emotions sometimes get so big that they spill out of your eyes.”

“I get what you mean,” Perfuma said. “Are you doing OK?”

Scorpia nodded, closing her eyes, and said, “I’ve never… been so _close_ to anyone else before. I’m… I’m really glad it was you.”

Perfuma’s chest swelled with affection, and she wrapped her arms around Scorpia, hugging her close. Scorpia hugged her back, pressing her face into Perfuma’s hair and breathing in.

“You smell like roses,” she said.

“Yeah,” Perfuma said. “I put on rose oil.”

“It’s really nice.”

“Thank you.” Perfuma breathed in. “You smell like… I don’t know. Something nice.”

“Sweat?” Scorpia said, and Perfuma said, “That’s both of us. I think we just got in our workout for the day.”

Scorpia laughed. “Yeah, this is my new favorite way to exercise.”

“Well, feel free to do it whenever,” Perfuma said, and she pressed her forehead to Scorpia’s, then gave her a small, gentle kiss.

“Did _you_ enjoy it?” Scorpia asked shyly.

“Yes,” Perfuma said. “I like being close to you, too.”

She wriggled her way closer into Scorpia’s arms, resting her head against Scorpia’s chest, and Scorpia said, “You know, you never got around to telling me about your day.”

“Yeah,” Perfuma said, laughing. “We got a little sidetracked somewhere along the way there.”

“Well, did you have a good day? Anything interesting happen?”

“Oh, let’s see. My amazing girlfriend surprised me by bringing me flowers and cupcake ingredients and I got to spend time with two of my good friends, too. And then I had ridiculously good sex with my incredibly hot girlfriend.”

Scorpia blushed and said, “Besides that.”

“Besides that, mostly just a long meeting about supply distribution, and my meditation groups with the former clones. The usual. I spent most of the day thinking about you, so my work wasn’t very efficient.”

“Oh, that happens to me too,” Scorpia said. “Crabby keeps telling me that rereading messages from Perfuma is no basis for a system of government.”

Perfuma laughed.

“I guess we’ll be able to focus more once we get used to being together,” she said. “For right now, I like thinking about you all the time.”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “You’re one of my favorite subjects to think about.”

They spent a while longer lying in bed and talking, before they both got hungry and Perfuma got up to cook them a simple dinner of pasta with pesto and lots of good olive oil and hard cheese. Scorpia went and took a shower (Perfuma was tempted to join her, but she didn’t want to seem _that_ obsessed with Scorpia’s body), and afterwards Perfuma took a quick shower as well, and they made plans for the next day, before Scorpia would have to head back to her kingdom. When night finally fell, they got into bed together and whispered to each other between soft kisses, before getting tired and falling asleep in each other’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose blueberry cupcakes because I made some recently and they're great. I got my recipe from the book "Sweet, Savory, and Sometimes Boozy Cupcakes" by Alison Riede. I don't have a link for the recipe but the key is to put sour cream in the batter, use a mix of regular and self-rising flour, and place the blueberries on top of the batter after spooning into the cupcake containers, rather than mixing them into the batter.   
> As always, please let me know what you thought! I know this chapter was a little different because of the sex scene but you know what, it's what Scorfuma deserves.


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